Leiden University Student Repository

Giesbers, Lotte (2026)

“Ik Moet van Mijn Ouders”: Het Verband tussen Ouderlijke Prestatiedruk, Autonome Leermotivatie en Schoolzingeving onder Nederlandse Eerste- en Tweedeklassers

Master thesis | Education and Child Studies (MSc)

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between parental performance pressure, autonomous motivation for learning and sense of meaningfulness in school (hereafter: school meaningfulness) among teenagers. The main hypotheses were that 1) students experiencing performance pressure by their parents would show lower levels of school meaningfulness (measured as feelings of impact, purpose and meaning in the school context), 2) students experiencing parental performance pressure but maintaining an autonomous motivation for learning would show higher levels of school meaningfulness: implicating that autonomous motivation for learning would have a softening effect on the relationship between parental performance pressure and school meaningfulness. A total of 257 Dutch adolescents aged 12-15 years participated in the study. The results showed significant relations between both parental performance pressure and school meaningfulness, and between autonomous motivation for...Show moreThe aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between parental performance pressure, autonomous motivation for learning and sense of meaningfulness in school (hereafter: school meaningfulness) among teenagers. The main hypotheses were that 1) students experiencing performance pressure by their parents would show lower levels of school meaningfulness (measured as feelings of impact, purpose and meaning in the school context), 2) students experiencing parental performance pressure but maintaining an autonomous motivation for learning would show higher levels of school meaningfulness: implicating that autonomous motivation for learning would have a softening effect on the relationship between parental performance pressure and school meaningfulness. A total of 257 Dutch adolescents aged 12-15 years participated in the study. The results showed significant relations between both parental performance pressure and school meaningfulness, and between autonomous motivation for learning and school meaningfulness. However there was no interaction effect: it cannot yet be determined whether autonomous motivation does or does not have a softening effect on the relation between parental performance pressure and school meaningfulness as it is unclear whether enough students experienced both parental performance pressure and autonomous motivation for learning. Further research into the interaction of autonomous motivation for learning and parental performance pressure is proposed, as well as research into what schools can do to mitigate the effects of parental performance pressure. The results seem to imply that parental performance pressure is associated with lower levels of school meaningfulness and that autonomous motivation for learning relates to higher levels of school meaningfulness, which provides grounds for interventions to increase school well-being.Show less

parental performance pressure, school meaningfulness, autonomous motivation for learning, self-determination theory, school well-being

Author

Giesbers, Lotte

Faculty

Faculty of Social & Behavioural Sciences

Specialisation

Educational Science

Supervisors

Nas, C. N.

ECTS Credits

20

Language

nl