Developmental patterns of achievement emotions and math performance in primary school – differences in school burnout

Abstract This study aimed to investigate profiles of math emotions and performance and their stability when students transition from Grade 4 to 5 ( n = 345). Furthermore, differences in school burnout levels associated with profile membership were investigated. A latent profile analysis was conducted to identify subgroups of students with different patterns of math anxiety, enjoyment, boredom, and performance (i.e., arithmetic fluency and number processing), followed by latent transition analysis to examine profiles’ stability. We identified four profiles of math emotions and performance: Positive (positive with mixed performance, i.e., high in arithmetic fluency, average in number processing) (t1 and t2, 27.0% at both time points), Anxious (mildly anxious and weaker-performing) (t1, 32.8%; t2, 32.5%); Neutral (neutral and high-performing) (t1, 25.2%; t2, 25.8%), and Negative (negative with mixed performance, i.e., weaker in arithmetic fluency, average in number processing) (t1, 15.1%; t2, 14.8%). The profiles demonstrated high stability of remaining in the same group, with the Anxious profile indicating the highest stability (96.8%) and the Negative profile, the lowest (79.0%). Furthermore, we observed that the profiles characterised by higher performance, higher positive emotions and lower negative emotions exhibited lower burnout levels than other profiles. In line with previous research, these findings suggest that students demonstrate individual differences in math emotions, performance, and school burnout already in primary school, and that studying these heterogeneous patterns is crucial for providing personalised educational support in math teaching and learning.