This study examined relationships between distal social contexts, parents' support for learning, self-concept, and adolescents' academic goal orientations. Data were collected from 435 female and 410 male 18-yr.-old South Africans. Multistage regression analyses indicated that family social status and rural/urban locality had unmediated relations with the adolescents' learning and performance goal orientations. In addition, parent and self-concept measures combined to have small independent associations with the adolescents' academic goal orientations.
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