This study aims to increase understanding of how grades affect students’ motivation and well-being by examining students’ own perceptions of how grades influence them in school. The study investigates (1) the role of student background characteristics (gender, cognitive ability, and parental education) in perceptions of grades as motivating or as sources of stress and anxiety, and (2) the extent to which these perceptions are related to students’ academic achievement.

Grades constitute a central component of all European education systems, although their design vary. When policies concerning how and when grades should be applied in schools are established, they are partly based on assumptions about how grades affect students’ behavior. However, research presents mixed conclusions regarding the impact of grades on students. Some studies conclude that grades, particularly those of a high-stakes character, have a positive effect on students’ academic achievement; students are expected to exert greater effort and devote more time to schoolwork when they are aware that their knowledge will be evaluated (e.g. Hvidman & Sievertsen, 2021). Other studies, however, suggest that grades are negatively related to future achievements (Klapp, 2015)  and associated with reduced well-being and lower academic self-concept among students (Cashman et al., 2023; Linder et al., 2025).

Drawing on Pekrun’s (2006) control-value theory, this study focuses on the emotions and perceptions that students themselves attribute to grades. Such emotions are a key part of understanding how assessments can be expected to affect students’ learning and well-being in school. In control-value theory, achievement emotions arise before, during, and after engaging in activities that are assessed. Positive activating emotions (e.g., enjoyment) are believed to facilitate students’ future performance by strengthening academic self-concept and intrinsic motivation, while successful performance, in turn, promotes positive activating emotions. Negative emotions (e.g., anxiety) are expected to impair performance, partly because coping with these emotions requires cognitive resources or leads students to allocate their resources to domains other than schoolwork (Pekrun et al., 2023).

Qualitative research examining students’ perceptions of grading shows substantial variation between individuals. Some students perceive grades as motivating, “a push in the right direction”, whereas others primarily experience them as distracting or as sources of stress and anxiety. Furthermore, these perceptions may coexist within the same individual (Costa et al., 2024; Liljeröd et al., 2025). However, how common these perceptions are, and how they differ across groups of students, is not well understood.

A large body of research examining the effects of assessment on students has shown that differences can be related to student background characteristics. For example, associations between grades and reduced perceived well-being as well as academic self-concept appear to be stronger among girls than among boys (Linder et al., 2025). Studies identifying negative associations between assessment and motivation often find these associations to be more pronounced among low-achieving students (Harlen & Deakin Crick, 2002; Klapp, 2015). It is therefore reasonable to expect that students’ perceptions of how grades affect them vary across student groups.

The study uses survey and register data from upper secondary school students born in 2004 (n = 9437). The data were obtained from the Evaluation Through Follow-up database, a longitudinal research project that has collected data from several birth cohorts since 1961 (Härnqvist, 2000). The database also includes results from a cognitive ability test as well as register data from Statistics Sweden, including parental education (measured in five categories) and students’ grade point average (GPA) at the completion of upper secondary education. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to establish two latent factors based on six survey items measuring students’ perceptions of being affected by grades. Students reported the extent to which grades (1) stressed them, (2) made them feel bad, (3) made them lose their desire to learn, (4) encouraged them to perform better, (5) made them work harder to learn, and (6) made them “sharpen up” and focus more. Items 1–3 constituted the factor Negative Emotions, while items 4–6 constituted the factor External Motivator. Structural equation modelling was subsequently used to examine whether the two factors were associated with students’ gender, cognitive ability, and parental education. These background variables were related to the two factors individually in separate models and jointly in a combined model. To examine potential interactions between the background characteristics, interaction terms (Gender × Cognitive Ability, Gender × Parental Education, Cognitive Ability × Parental Education, and Gender × Cognitive Ability × Parental Education) were created and related to the two factors. In a final step, associations between the two factors and students’ GPA were examined, with the three background variables included as control variables.

The models showed that girls were clearly overrepresented in the Negative Emotions factor (β = .361). Negative Emotions was also weakly negatively related to cognitive ability (β = −.119) and parental education (β = −.102). For the External Motivator factor, no significant associations were found with gender or cognitive ability, and only a weak association with parental education (β = −.119). However, the models indicated complex interaction effects for the association between cognitive ability and External Motivator, which seemed to vary by gender and by levels of parental education. The strongest positive association with External Motivator was observed among girls with high cognitive ability and highly educated parents, whereas the corresponding association appeared to be negative among girls with high cognitive ability but lower-educated parents. Furthermore, the models showed that Negative Emotions was negatively associated with GPA (β = −.278), whereas External Motivator was positively associated with GPA. However, the cross-sectional design does not allow conclusions about whether students’ perceptions of grades predict achievement or vice versa. As shown by Pekrun et al. (2023), these associations are likely to be reciprocal. The results can be understood in light of previous research demonstrating the differentiating effects of grading systems on students (Klapp, 2015). Students who possess combinations of characteristics that are already associated with higher academic achievement are those most likely to perceive grades as motivating, and this perception is positively related to academic performance.

Cashman, M., Strandh, M., & Högberg, B. (2023). Have performance-based educational reforms increased adolescent school-pressure in Sweden? A synthetic control approach. International Journal of Educational Development, 103, 102922. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2023.102922 Costa, S., Norton, L. S., & Pirchio, S. (2024). Discourses about grades and competency-based evaluation: Exploring communicative and situated meanings at an Italian high school. Social Psychology of Education, 27(5), 2177–2198. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-024-09911-5 Harlen, W., & Deakin Crick, R. (2002). A systematic review of the impact of summative assessment and tests on students’ motivation for learning. Research Evidence in Education Library, 2002(1). Härnqvist, K. (2000). Evaluation through follow-up: A longitudinal program for studying education and career development. In C.-G. Janson (Ed.), Seven Swedish longitudinal studies in behavioral science (pp. 76–114). Swedish Council for Planning and Coordination of Research. Hvidman, U., & Sievertsen, H. (2021). High-Stakes Grades and Student Behavior. Journal of Human Resources, 56(3), 821–849. https://doi.org/10.3368/jhr.56.3.0718-9620R2 Klapp, A. (2015). Does grading affect educational attainment? A longitudinal study. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 22(3), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/0969594X.2014.988121 Liljeröd, H., Jönsson, A., Klapp, A., & Jonsson, A.-C. (2025). Students’ perceptions of how grades influence their motivation: Voices of upper secondary school students in Norway and Sweden. Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11092-025-09454-z Linder, A., Gerdtham, U.-G., & Heckley, G. (2025). Adolescent Mental Health: Impact of Introducing Earlier Compulsory School Grades. Health Economics, 34(9), 1731–1746. https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.4982 Pekrun, R. (2006). The control-value theory of achievement emotions: Assumptions, corollaries, and implications for educational research and practice. Educational Psychology Review, 18(4), 315–341. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-006-9029-9 Pekrun, R., Marsh, H. W., Suessenbach, F., Frenzel, A. C., & Goetz, T. (2023). School grades and students’ emotions: Longitudinal models of within-person reciprocal effects. Learning and Instruction, 83, 101626. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2022.101626