The Mediating Role of Achievement Goals in Relationship between Perceived Family Atmosphere and Academic Performance among Babylon’s Students in Iraq

The present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the mediating role of achievement goals in relationship between perception of family atmosphere and academic performance in the students of Babylon University in Iraq.  The research method was correlation in the form of structural equation modeling. The statistical population of research included all third and fourth semester bachelor’ degree students in psychology studying at Babylon University in Iraq. From the mentioned statistical population, 258 students were selected by the convenience sampling method. The data were collected using the perceived family atmosphere questionnaire (Ryan et al, 1996), the achievement goals questionnaire (Midgley et al, 1998) and academic average score. To analyze data, Pearson's correlation coefficient and structural equation modeling were used. The results showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between the perceived family atmosphere in the two dimensions of father-child relationship and mother-child relationship with achievement goals and academic performance and between achievement goals and academic performance (p<.01). Moreover, results of structural equation modeling showed that achievement goals are a complete mediating variable in the relationship between the perceived family atmosphere and academic performance (p<.01). Based on the results of the study, it can be concluded that the perceived family atmosphere is an important variable for increasing achievement goals and academic performance in Iraqi students.