The Relationship Between Academic Motivation and General Health and the Effective Factors on This Relationship in Female High School Students

Background: Motivation is among factors that drive humans’ behavior and since many years ago, psychologists have paid much attention to its role in educational and academic development. Besides, students mental health is influential on the success of any country’s educational system. Objectives: The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between academic motivation and general health of female junior high school students in Jahrom city of Iran. Methods: This cross-sectional, descriptive-analytical study was done on 464 students studying in female junior high schools of Jahrom in the second semester of 2015. Multistage random sampling was used. In order to study academic motivation, Harter academic motivation scale and to study general health, goldberg general health questionnaire (GHQ-28) was used, the validity and reliability of which have been approved. The data were entered in the SPSS statistical software (version 21) and were analyzed using Pearson’s correlation, independent two-samples T-test, and linear regression modeling method. Results: The results of the correlation test indicated that academic motivation was associated with general health. Accordingly, lower GHQ scores were associated with higher academic motivation scores. In other words, healthier students had higher academic motivation (P < 0.001). However, no significant difference was found between seventh grade and eighth grade students regarding academic motivation and general health. Overall, the findings of this research showed the students’ high motivation, and that general health was at risk in some academic majors. Conclusions: According to this study, healthier students had higher academic motivation. Therefore, more attention needs to be paid to students’ general health and academic motivation, which could lead to their educational achievement.