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.