Achievement Emotions in Germany and China

The aim of this study was to establish the construct comparability and cross-cultural utility of the German and Chinese versions of the Academic Emotions Questionnaire—Mathematics (AEQ-M). Based on data from 312 German and 579 Chinese eighth-grade students, mean and covariance structures analysis revealed that the AEQ-M shows a high degree of measurement invariance across cultures. In addition, the emotions assessed by the AEQ-M showed similar patterns of relationships with self-reports of achievement, parental achievement expectations, and attributions of success and failure across the German and Chinese samples. Confirming earlier findings, Chinese students were found to experience higher levels of anxiety in mathematics. They were also found to experience more enjoyment, pride, and shame, and less anger, than German students. This research supports the use of the AEQ-M in cross-cultural research and provides data about a broader range of achievement emotions than has been investigated previously.

[1]  Klaus R. Scherer,et al.  Antecedents of and Reactions to Emotions in the United States and Japan , 1988 .

[2]  H. Markus,et al.  Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. , 1991 .

[3]  H. Kornadt.  Aggression motive and its developmental conditions in Eastern and Western cultures. , 1991 .

[4]  F. Salili,et al.  Age, Sex, and Cultural Differences in the Meaning and Dimensions of Achievement , 1994 .

[5]  J. Russell,et al.  Comparing Emotion Words between Languages , 1995 .

[6]  T. Little.  Mean and Covariance Structures (MACS) Analyses of Cross-Cultural Data: Practical and Theoretical Issues. , 1997, Multivariate behavioral research.

[7]  A. T. Church,et al.  Self-Described Traits, Values, and Moods Associated with Individualism and Collectivism , 1999 .

[8]  E. Diener,et al.  Norms for experiencing emotions in different cultures: inter- and intranational differences. , 2001, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[9]  T. Goetz,et al.  Academic Emotions in Students' Self-Regulated Learning and Achievement: A Program of Qualitative and Quantitative Research , 2002 .

[10]  Reinhard Pekrun,et al.  Advances in test anxiety research , 2004 .

[11]  Rudolf vom Hofe,et al.  Emotionen und Leistung im Fach Mathematik : Ziele und erste Befunde aus dem „Projekt zur Analyse der Leistungsentwicklung in Mathematik“ (PALMA) , 2004 .

[12]  Anne C. Frenzel,et al.  Achievement Emotions in Germany and China : A Cross-Cultural Validation of the Academic Emotions Questionnaire-Mathematics (AEQ-M) , 2007 .