Autonomy-Supportive Classroom Climate: Its Multilevel Structure and Associations with Students’ Mathematics Achievement

Background: Autonomy-supportive climate has consistently been associated with positive student outcomes. Although Self-Determination Theory and Motivational Climate Theory conceptualize it as a multilevel construct, research has mainly examined autonomy support from an individual student perspective. The present study investigated autonomy-supportive climate as both a classroom-level construct and an individual microclimate component, examining its associations with mathematics achievement. Methods: Data came from a representative sample of 26,564 Italian 10th-grade students. Doubly Latent Multilevel Structural Equation Modeling (DL-ML-SEM) was used to examine the multilevel measurement structure of autonomy-supportive climate and its associations with mathematics achievement at the student and classroom levels, controlling for students’ sex, immigrant background, and school type. Results: Multilevel CFA supported the factorial validity and cross-level invariance of the autonomy-supportive climate measure. ICC analyses indicated substantial between-class variability and high reliability of aggregated classroom perceptions. DL-ML-SEM showed that autonomy-supportive climate was positively associated with mathematics achievement at the classroom level, but not at the individual student level. Conclusions: These findings highlight the relevance of examining autonomy support as a classroom-level phenomenon and provide new evidence on the multilevel nature of autonomy-supportive climate in educational settings.