The impact of achievement motivation on creativity tendency of college students: a moderated mediation model

TL;DR

This study explores how achievement motivation affects college students' creativity, with anti-frustration ability mediating and student competence moderating the relationship.

Contribution

The paper introduces a moderated mediation model showing how anti-frustration ability and student competence influence the link between achievement motivation and creativity.

Findings

Achievement motivation is positively related to creativity tendency in college students.

Anti-frustration ability partially mediates the relationship between achievement motivation and creativity tendency.

Student competence moderates the mediation effect, with higher competence leading to a stronger indirect effect through anti-frustration ability.

Abstract

With a paradigm shift from “standardized knowledge impartation” to “precision education based on individual traits” in higher education, augmenting college students’ creativity is increasingly emphasized. Understanding the specific impact of motivational factors underlying creativity tendency of college students is attracting scholarly attention in order to propose effective augmenting measures.

This study focused on the relationship between achievement motivation and creativity tendency of college students, exploring specifically the mediating role of anti- frustration ability and the moderating role of student competence.

Our sample comprised 1,275 undergraduate students from universities in China. Key constructs in our model (i.e., achievement motivation, anti-frustration ability, student competence, and creativity tendency) were measured by established scales. The PROCESS Macro was adopted to examine this moderated mediation model.

The results showed that (1) Achievement motivation is positively related to creativity tendency of college students; (2) Anti-frustration ability plays a partial mediating role in the relationship; that is, achievement motivation indirectly influences creativity tendency through anti-frustration ability; (3) student competence plays a moderating role in the first stage of the mediation path; that is, the indirect effect of achievement motivation on creativity tendency of college students through anti-frustration ability varies at different levels of student competence and the indirect effect will be greater when student competence is high rather than low.

The results provide insights into how achievement motivation influences creativity tendency of college students, suggesting that universities should enhance creativity cultivation by boosting students’ motivation for achievement and their ability to cope with setbacks. This approach is particularly effective in college students with higher competence.

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