Social Achievement Goals

Little extant research attempts to understand why rural African Americans engage in social relationships with peers in school. This is somewhat surprising as rural students’ peer interactions often affect their scholastic desires, and peers can alter African Americans’ academic performance. Hence, the current study examined both the presence and psychometric validity of social achievement goals among rural African American high school students. Results suggest the presence of three reasons for engaging in social relationships in school: social development (desire to increase friendship quality), social demonstration-approach (wanting to appear “cool” among friends), and social demonstration-avoid (fear of appearing socially inferior). Confirmatory factor analysis and Rasch analysis provide support for both the presence and valid measurement of social achievement goals among rural African American adolescents.