Motivation to learn by age, education, and literacy skills among working-age adults in the United States

Large-scale Assessments in Education

An IERI – International Educational Research Institute Journal

Table 3 Ranking of mean motivation to learn for 16 subgroups defined by gender, age group, and literacy proficiency level

Ranking	Group	Group description	Factor mean	Group with significantly smaller factor mean^a
1	2	Literacy+, age 25–34, men	0.51	1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
2	4	Literacy+, age 35–44, men	0.46	5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
3	1	Literacy+, age 25–34, women	0.39	6, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
4	3	Literacy+, age 35–44, Women	0.36	6, 11, 13, 15, 16
5	10	Literacy−, age 25–34, men	0.34	13, 15, 16
6	7	Literacy+, age 55–65, Women	0.33	13, 15, 16
7	9	Literacy−, age 25–34, Women	0.29	13, 15, 16
8	5	Literacy+, age 45–54, women	0.29	13, 15, 16
9	8	Literacy+, age 55–65, men	0.28	15, 16
10	12	Literacy−, age 35–44, men	0.21	15, 16
11	6	Literacy+, age 45–54, men	0.21	15, 16
12	11	Literacy−, age 35–44, women	0.21	15, 16
13	14	Literacy−, age 45–54, men	0.21	15, 16
14	13	Literacy−, age 45–54, women	0.13
15	16	Literacy−, age 55–65, men	0.00
16	15	Literacy−, age 55–65, women	−0.01

Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Program for International Assessment of Adult Competencies, 2012/2014/2017 Restricted Use File Data
The ranking shows 1 (high)–16 (low) motivation to learn
“Literacy+ ” = middle to high literacy proficiency; “Literacy– “ = low literacy proficiency
For the group value and group description, see Fig. 2
^aStatistically significant difference (p < 0.001)