Teacher support and its influence on students' intrinsic value and effort: Dimensional comparison effects across subjects

• Students' school experiences are interrelated across classrooms and subjects.
• This could affect the relation between teacher support and student motivation.
• We examined the development of student intrinsic value and effort in two subjects.
• We found positive within- and negative cross-subject effects of teacher support.
• This calls for further examination of the social complexity of the school environment.

While positive influences of teacher support on students' motivational development have been widely shown, existing research has not yet considered that students' school experiences are interrelated across classrooms and subjects. The aims of this study were, thus, twofold: (a) To investigate the effects of teacher support on the development of students' intrinsic value and effort; and (b) based on dimensional comparison theory, to examine potential cross-subject contrast effects of teacher support in one subject on students' intrinsic value and effort in another subject. Using a sample of 1155 German students assessed in Grade 5 and 6, multilevel latent change models revealed positive within-subject associations between teacher support and intrinsic value and effort. Furthermore, support for contrast effects was found. Higher levels of teacher support in one subject were related negatively to intrinsic value and effort in another subject, calling for the examination of students' classroom experiences as interrelated across subjects.