Adolescents' Commitment to Developing Talent: The Role of Peers in Continuing Motivation for Sports and the Arts

This study was partly funded by a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to Drs. Jacquelynne S. Eccles, Rena D. Harold, Phyllis C. Blumenfeld, and Allan Wigfield. An earlier version of this study was presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Washington, DC, in April 1997. 1Assistant Professor, Department of Educational and Psychological Foundations, Northern Illinois University. Received Ph.D. in Education and Psychology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Research interests include children's and adolescents' motivation, and social processes and contexts that support motivation and engagement. To whom correspondence should be addressed at 225 Graham Hall, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL 60115. Email: [email protected]. 2Assistant Professor, Educational Psychology Department, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Received Ph.D. in Education and Psychology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Main research interests are understanding how features of the classroom and peer group context relate to students' achievement beliefs and behaviors, including students' beliefs and behaviors regarding help seeking in the classroom. 3Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany. Received Ph.D. in Education and Psychology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Main research interests are career development and the school-to-work transition in late adolescence and young adulthood, with particular emphasis on gender and social class. 4Postdoctoral Research Fellow, MacArthur Network for Successful Pathways through Middle Childhood. Received Ph.D. in Education and Psychology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Research interests are gender role socialization, motivation, and extracurricular participation. 5Graduate Student, Combined Program in Education and Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Research interests are achievement and social motivation, and students' self-presentation in the classroom. 6Professor of Psychology, Women's Studies, and Education, and Research Scientist, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan. Received her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from UCLA. Research interests include gender-role socialization, social development in the family and school context, and classroom influences on student motivation.