Academic underachievement and its motivational and self-regulated learning correlates: A meta-analytic review of 80 years of research

Academic underachievement, the discrepancy between students' academic potential and performance, remains both an educational problem and a mystery after nearly a century of research. Of enduring interest has been identifying factors behind underachievement, one of which relates to students’ motivation and self-regulated learning. To explore the state of known research, we conducted a systematic and meta-analytic review of the past 80 years of empirical research comparing underachieving and non-underachieving students on various motivational and self-regulated learning correlates. Based on 1044 effect sizes from 125 studies (156 unique samples, N = 56,640 students), our overall meta-analytic findings suggested that underachieving students tend to have higher external locus of control (g = 0.30) and lower levels of competence beliefs (g = −0.48), autonomous motivation and task values (g = −0.48), self-regulated learning strategies (g = −0.59), and mastery goals (g = −0.39) relative to non-underachieving students. Differences in competence beliefs between underachieving and non-underachieving students were moderated by grade level and underachievement identification method. Implications for the theoretical bases for academic underachievement and the educational practices to reverse or prevent underachievement are discussed.