The current study aimed to know to what extent values explain achievement goals and whether the latter predict good academic performance. Participants were 307 high school students from João Pessoa (PB), most of them women (61.2%) and from public schools (68%), with a mean age of 17.6 years old. They answered the Achievement Goals Questionnaire, the Basic Values Survey, Academic Performance Indicators and demographic questions. Based on linear regressions, an explanatory model was proposed in which value priorities predicted the goal achievements and these, in turn, predicted the academic performance. Results suggested the model presented satisfactory goodness of fit indices. However, further research was suggested to test this model in different samples, as well as taking into account other variables that could contribute to a better understanding of academic performance and its determinants.
Academic achievement; achievement; motivation
