Contemporary Educational Psychology 32 (2007) 231–252 www.elsevier.com/locate/cedpsych 0361-476X/$ - see front matter  2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.cedpsych.2006.06.001 Academic goal orientations, multiple goal proWles, and friendship intimacy among early adolescents Inbal Levy-Tossman ¤ , Avi Kaplan, Avi Assor Department of Education, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva 84105, Israel Available online 7 September 2006 Abstract This study investigated the relations between early adolescents’ academic motivational orienta- tions and an aspect of quality of friendship: intimacy. Two-hundred and three Jewish-Israeli seventh grade students responded to surveys asking them about their academic achievement goals and about characteristics of their friendships. Variable-centered regression analyses suggested that mastery goals were positively associated with mutual sharing of diYculties, trust, and adaptive social prob- lem-solving between friends, whereas performance-approach goals were negatively associated with intimacy friendship. Moreover, both performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals were associated with mistrust, inconsideration, and tension between friends. A person-centered analysis, employing cluster analysis, suggested that proWles with a higher level of mastery goals relative to both types of performance goals were associated with less mistrust among friends in comparison with proWles with a higher level of performance goals relative to mastery goals. The Wndings point to the connection between academic motivation and social relationships in school.  2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Motivation; Intimacy; Friendship; Adolescence 1. Introduction In the past two decades, achievement goal theory has become one of the most promi- nent frameworks for the conceptualization and investigation of students’ experiences in school (Elliot, 1999; Pintrich, 1994). Most research in this framework, however, has * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: inbal-tossman@bezeqint.net (I. Levy-Tossman), akaplan@bgu.ac.il (A. Kaplan).