Students’ emotions during homework in mathematics: Testing a theoretical model of antecedents and achievement outcomes

The experience of pleasant and unpleasant emotions in academic situations is known to affect students’ learning. The aim of the present study was to extend previous research by examining the antecedents and consequences of student emotions in the homework context. Multilevel analyses of a longitudinal dataset containing 3483 grade 9 and grade 10 students in 155 classes showed that the perceived quality of the homework tasks assigned by the teacher affected students’ experience of unpleasant homework-related emotions. Moreover, the experience of unpleasant emotions during homework sessions was negatively related to homework effort and negatively predicted later achievement in mathematics.

Research highlights
► The perceived quality of homework tasks affects the experience of emotions during homework completion.
► The experience of unpleasant homework-related emotions is negatively related with the effort students put into homework completion.
► The experience of unpleasant homework-related emotions negatively predicts later achievement in mathematics.