Affirming and Undermining Motivations and Adolescents' Reading Comprehension: Moderator Effects of Reading Level and Motivation‐Enhancing Educational Characteristics

ABSTRACT Background Undermining motivations are relatively new to reading motivation research. In the current study, we first tried to answer the question whether relations between reading comprehension, affirming and, particularly, undermining reading motivations (Avoidance, Perceived Difficulty in Reading) differed for secondary schoolers from different educational tracks (prevocational vs. general/pre‐university). Second, we analysed whether educational characteristics moderated the relation between affirming/undermining motivations and comprehension. Methods We used data from 3390 Dutch 15‐year‐olds participating in PISA 2018. Students completed a reading test assessing different comprehension processes (locating information, understanding, reflecting/evaluating) in various genres and formats and a questionnaire measuring affirming reading motivations (Intrinsic Motivation, Perception of Competence in Reading), undermining reading motivations (Avoidance, Perceived Difficulty in Reading) and perceptions of motivation‐supporting educational characteristics: Teacher‐Directed Instruction, Teacher Feedback, Teachers' Stimulation of Reading Engagement, Teacher Enthusiasm and Student Co‐operation. Data were analysed using multilevel regression analysis. Results We found positive relations between affirming motivations and reading comprehension and negative relations between undermining motivations and reading comprehension; associations were comparable for students from the prevocational and general/pre‐university tracks. Additionally, we found a negative relation between Teachers' Stimulation of Reading Engagement and reading comprehension and a positive relation between Teacher Enthusiasm and reading comprehension, but no moderator effects of educational characteristics. Conclusions Our findings call for further experimental and longitudinal research. Such research might tease out the direction of the relations between undermining motivations and reading comprehension and determine what types of interventions are effective in reducing undermining motivations.