Profiles of personal and ecological assets: Adolescents’ motivation and engagement in self-driven learning

While opportunities for adolescents to drive their own learning are increasing, differences in motivations for and engagement in these opportunities are rarely investigated. The current study employed a sample of adolescents (N = 580, M(age) = 16.53) enrolled in GripTape, a 10-week self-driven learning program in which youth pursue topics of their choosing. Cluster analysis classified adolescents based on their personal (e.g., resilience, competence) and ecological (e.g., adult support, safe environments) assets, resulting in two distinguishable groups. A High Asset group scored more favorably on these indicators than a Lower Asset group. Between-cluster comparisons revealed that compared to the Lower Asset group, the High Asset group reported greater levels of motivation for self-driven learning (i.e., intrinsic, extrinsic, and competence demonstration), but not engagement (i.e., positive learning experience, commitment to learning topics and activities). Subsequent tests showed that extrinsic motivation and competence demonstration negatively correlates with youth commitment to learning topics and activities. These findings enrich the literature concerning adolescents’ motivations for and engagement in self-driven learning, and how to support youth self-driven learning. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-021-02412-0.