Heterogeneity in Perceived Involution and Its Impact on Achievement Motivation

Confronted with intensifying social competition and involution, Chinese adolescents are experiencing severe erosion of learning motivation, with school aversion and dropout becoming increasingly common. Involution has thus emerged as a pervasive societal concern. Yet how involution affects motivation is highly complex and remains insufficiently examined. Employing the latent profile analysis for the first time, the present study identifies subtypes of involution perception and investigates their predictive power for achievement motivation as well as the underlying mechanisms. A latent profile analysis indicated a four-profile solution was optimal. The Adaptive-to-Involution group, despite perceiving fierce competition, reported the lowest psychological distress and the second-highest achievement motivation, surpassed only by the Involution-Immune group. This finding challenges the entrenched assumption that high involution necessarily undermines motivation. Conversely, the Involution-Observer group, which perceived the least competition, exhibited the greatest inhibition of basic psychological needs due to anxiety over resource scarcity, resulting in the lowest achievement motivation. This contradicts the intuitive linear view that stronger perceived involution inevitably yields greater need frustration. Empirically, the study is the first to document a previously overlooked risk zone characterized by “moderate involution but high need frustration.