Side Effects of Academic Engagement? How Boys' and Girls' Well-Being Is Related to Their Engagement and Motivational Regulation

While female students are more successful and show more behavioural engagement at school than male students, they also report lower levels of subjective well-being. This study examines how motivational regulation interacts with school engagement in predicting subjective well-being of male and female students. In questionnaire data from a representative sample of Flemish students in the academic track (N = 3452, age 13-14) female students reported lower subjective well-being, more engagement, and more autonomous than controlled motivation compared to male students. Multilevel-analyses, carried out separately for female and male students, revealed that for both genders, subjective well-being was positively associated with engagement and negatively associated with a more controlled than autonomous motivation. For female students only, motivational regulation significantly interacted with engagement in predicting their well-being. The negative association between having more controlled than autonomous motivation and subjective well-being was less strong for female students showing higher school engagement.