Motivation/Task Value Scale for Children

Children's task-motivation was assessed in an interview using the Task-Value Scale for Children (TVS-C; Nurmi & Aunola, 1999), which is based on the ideas presented by Eccles (1983). The scale consisted of 9 items measuring children's task-motivation (i.e. interest in or liking for a particular subject) in reading (3 items), writing (3 items), and math (3 items), separately (e.g. “How much do you like math?”; “How much do you like doing math-related tasks at school?”; “How much do you like doing math-related tasks at home?”). In the measurement procedure, the children were first read the question. Then, they were shown a set of five faces drawn to depict an evaluative scale running from very positive to very negative. The children were then asked to point out the picture which most describes their liking for a particular subject (picture of unhappy face/1 = “I do not like it at all/I dislike doing those tasks.”; picture of happy face/5 = “I like it very much/I really enjoy doing those tasks.”). Before administering the test, the procedure was carefully explained to the child, and the meaning of each picture was explained ( Aunola, Leskinen, & Nurmi, 2005).

Source: Aunola, Leskinen, & Nurmi, 2005, Copyright Reproduced with permission