Structural modeling was used to explain children's intentions to seek help with schoolwork. One hundred seventy-seven 3rd, 5th, and 7th graders were administered questionnaires assessing perceived academic competence, intrinsic orientation (preference for challenge and striving for independent mastery), and attitudes and intentions regarding help-seeking in math class. A multisample procedure tested for grade differences in covariance structures. At Grades 3 and 5, the child's expressed likelihood of seeking help was explained by intrinsic preference for challenge, extrinsic dependence on the teacher, and attitudes about the benefits of help-seeking. At Grade 7, expressed likelihood of seeking help was explained by attitudes about the benefits as well as the costs of help-seeking. Discussion focuses on developmental and individual-difference factors related to instrumental help-seeking and academic performance.

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Elementary-school children were asked why they do, or do not, ask for help from parents, teachers, and classmates when they have problems in math and reading. Responses were correlated with achievement scores. Findings indicate (a) Classmates are seen as less helpful than adults in answering questions, (b) there is more concern about possible negative reactions (i.e., perceptions of being "dumb") from classmates than from adults, (c) children perceive a greater need for help in math than in reading, (d) girls are more concerned than boys about negative reactions to help-seeking in math, (e) the more children believe that asking questions is likely to help in learning, the more they like to ask questions, and (0 the lower children's achievement, the greater their reluctance to ask questions. Discussion focuses on ways in which children's attitudes differ according to academic subject and identity of the helper.

The purpose of the longitudinal study was to investigate the prediction of children's academic achievement on the basis of cognitive tasks given prior to kindergarten, and academic attitudes on the basis of teachers' and mothers' ratings of the children's general cognitive abilities and actual achievement. Subjects were tested initially before entering kindergarten; from 105 to 154 of the 255 kindergarten children were followed through grades 1, 2, 3, 5, and 10. A subset of cognitive tasks maintained a high relation to high school achievement scores, especially in reading. Tenth-grade self-concept of ability, expectancy for success, value of success, and perception of task difficulty showed effects of sex and academic content area, with boys generally being more favorable toward math and girls more favorable toward reading. Children's attitudes were related both to mothers' earlier ratings of their children's cognitive abilities and actual achievement scores; this was especially the case for girls. There was a negative relation between mothers' ratings and girls' attitudes toward mathematics. Sex differences in all measures throughout the 11-year period are reviewed.

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