A Study Of The Middle-School Student's Academic Delay Of Gratification And Its Influencing Factors

Academic delay of gratification refers to the preference that students choose higher but later learning goals rather than disturbance and temptation. The current study aims to explorer the development tendency of the middle-school student's academic delay of gratification and to analysis the influencing mechanism of task contexts, learning motivation and learning strategies. It not only deepens the research of academic delay of gratification, but also provide guidance and support to enhance students' academic delay of gratifications in practice.350 seventh-graded students were randomly chosen for questionnaire research, in which the relationship among academic delay of gratification and its influencing factors were inspected.65 eighth-graded students took part in the delay of gratification laboratory researches based on general research paradigm and specific subject-related learning contexts. The influence of subject and non-subject task contexts was discussed. The main conclusions of the research shows that:1,Significant gender difference in middle-school students' academic delay of gratifications was found among gender groups and achievement groups.2,Significant correlations were found among academic delay of gratification, learning motivation, learning strategy and academic achievement.3,The tendency to delay choices was gradually declined in all kinds of task contexts.4,No significant difference was found in academic delay of gratification between math context s and English contexts.5,Delay of gratification in math context has significant correlation with math scores and total academic scores. No significant correlations were found between delay of gratification in other two contexts and academic scores.