Aims: Rumination is a continuous and incontinent thinking, about a negative event. Studies have been demonstrated that there is a correlation between academic goal orientations and academic rumination possibly. The purpose of present study was to determine the correlation between academic goal orientations and academic rumination in students.

Methods: In this descriptive-correlational study, 260 girl and boy students of Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Science through multi-stage random sampling were selected and studied in 2012-2013. To data collection academic goal orientation questionnaire (AGOR) and academic rumination inventory (ARI) were used. Data analysis was done by using Pearson correlation coefficient, multiple regression by frequent entry and stepwise methods, multivariate and one-way ANOVA.

Findings: There was a negative and significant correlation between mastery goal and academic rumination and a positive and significant correlation between performance-avoidance goal orientation and academic rumination. The combined weight of academic goal orientations was explained 34% of the academic rumination variance. Also, there was a significant difference between boys and girls in terms of mastery goal, performance-orientation, and academic rumination. 

Conclusion: There is a significant correlation between academic goal orientations and academic rumination of the students.