The first year of college is a pivotal time for academic and personal development, yet there is still much to be learned about motivational change during this period. Using Self-Determination Theory (SDT), we assessed six distinct types of motivation among an initial sample of 776 students at four time points over the first year of college. Latent growth models indicated initially high but declining levels of intrinsic motivation and identified regulation, moderate but increasing levels of positive and negative introjection, and low but increasing levels of external regulation and amotivation. These patterns suggest that, on average, more autonomous types of motivation tend to decrease over the first year of college while more controlled types of motivation tend to increase. Academic functioning was predicted by (a) initial levels of both identified regulation and amotivation and (b) change trajectories for intrinsic motivation, identified regulation, and amotivation. These findings suggest that contextual supports for building autonomous motivation and minimizing amotivation appear to be essential both prior to college entry and throughout the first year.

大学第一年是学术和个人发展的关键时期，但是在此期间，关于动机变化的知识仍然很多。使用自我决定理论（SDT），我们在大学一年级的四个时间点对776名学生的初始样本进行了六种不同类型的动机评估。潜在增长模型表明最初的内在动机水平高但在下降中，并确定了调节；正向和负向注入的水平中等但在上升；而外部调节和积极性则较低但在上升。这些模式表明，平均而言，在大学一年级时，更多自主类型的动机趋于减少，而更多受控类型的动机趋于增加。通过（a）既定的调节和动机的初始水平以及（b）内在动机，确定的调节和动机的变化轨迹来预测学术功能。这些发现表明，在大学入学之前和整个第一年中，建立自主动机和最大程度降低动机的情境支持显得至关重要。