Academic and social achievement goals and early adolescents' adjustment: A latent class approach

•Six latent classes were identified based on academic and social achievement goals.•Middle school students' academic and social adjustment varied across latent classes.•Examination of goal profiles across both academic and social domains is important.•The correlates of an academic achievement goal profile varied by social goal profile.

Middle school students pursue both academic and social goals. How to coordinate those strivings has important implications for students' academic and social adjustment at school. Confirmatory factor latent class analysis including both academic and social goals was conducted on the data from 440 middle school students. Analyses identified 3 latent classes based on academic goal orientation, and 2 social goal classes, resulting in a total of 6 (3 × 2) distinct latent groups. Subsequent analysis found that these 6 groups showed difference in academic adjustment (academic engagement, help seeking behaviors, learning strategies, academic self-efficacy, academic worry), and social adjustment (perceived peer support, social satisfaction, social self-efficacy, and social worry). The results indicate that middle school adjustment can be better understood when both academic and social achievement goals were taken into account. The implications of these results for researchers and practitioners are discussed.