Dataset: Configurational profiles of perceived academic challenge and cost and their association with university academic performance

This study examines how perceived academic challenge and multiple dimensions of motivational cost combine into distinct motivational profiles and how these profiles relate to university academic performance. Using a cross-sectional sample of 851 undergraduate students from a Chilean university, we identified profiles through Fuzzy C-Means clustering and examined differences in academic outcomes across profiles. The results show that profiles characterized by lower perceived cost are associated with higher grade point averages, whereas profiles with elevated cost across several dimensions exhibit comparatively lower performance. These findings contribute to research on academic motivation by providing empirical evidence on configurational patterns of challenge and cost within the framework of Situated Expectancy–Value Theory.