CHILDRENS ACHIEVEMENT AND CAUSAL ATTRIBUTIONS IN MATHEMATICS AND READING

The purpose of this study was to investigate (a) the consistency of tenth graders’ causal attributions about success and failure in mathematics and reading and (b) the predictive relationships between these causal attributions and the children’s academic achievement and sex. Attributional ratings were factor analyzed, and resulting indices were regressed on sex and achievement scores from grades 2, 5, and 10. Findings indicate that (a) certain attributions (e.g., mood, test difficulty, and mastery of specific skills) are generalized across subject area and outcome, whereas others (e.g., ability and interest) are specific to subject area and outcome; (b) the higher children’s concurrent achievement in math and reading, the greater the likelihood of attributing success to stable causes and failure to unstable causes; and (c) the lower children’s concurrent achievement in reading, the greater the likelihood of attributing reading success (or failure) to help (or lack thereof) from the teacher. © 1990 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.