Relationships of parents’ and child’s general attributional styles to academic performance

Abstract

This study examined the relationships among student academic performance and child's and parents' attributional styles. One hundred seventy-nine students (87 boys and 92 girls) who were enrolled in primary public schools in New South Wales, Australia, and their parents volunteered to participate in the study. Only English-speaking, two-parent families were included. Participants completed ageappropriate attributional style questionnaires. Academic performance was obtained from student records of course grades. The results indicated that both mothers' and fathers' attributions for their own positive and negative life events were related to their children's attributions for their academic performance. We present implications of these results for research on attributions and academic performance.Researchers have devoted a great deal of attention to the roles of parent and child attributions in student academic performance (e.g., Bar-Tal 1978). Studies have focused on both parental attributions for their children's performance (Bugental and Happaney 2002) and children's attributions for their own behaviours (Normandeau and Gobeil 1998). However, few studies have examined how parents' and children's attributions

Prevention of depression and anxiety symptoms in adolescents: 42 and 54 months follow-up of the Aussie Optimism Program-Positive Thinking Skills

“…According to Seligman et al (1984) , children’s attribution styles often converge with that of their parents, especially their mothers. Similarly, an Australian study reported an association between parent attribution styles and children’s attributions concerning academic performance ( Khodayarifard et al, 2010 ); whilst Lau et al (2006) proposed that genetic and social factors combine to influence children’s attributions. Seligman explains that individuals with a negative attributional style attribute “bad” events to internal, stable, and global causes.…”

Stability in Parents' Causal Attributions for Their Children's Academic Performance: A Nine-Year Follow-up

“…1999; Khodayarifard, Brinthaupt, & Anshel, 2010;Räty & Kärkkäinen, 2011;Rytkönen, Aunola, & Nurmi, 2007), still little is known about how stable parents' causal attributions are over time. There are two possibilities: Parents' causal attributions for their offspring's academic performance may change over time due to feedback they receive (S. Miller, 1995), or their causal attributions may reflect more general attributional styles that will be relatively stable over time (Peterson & Steen, 2009).…”

The Relationship of Self-Esteem and Attributional Styles with Self-Handicapping in Primary Schools

“…Accordingly, they attributed their successes to internal and controllable causes. In the same line, Khodayarifard et al (22) revealed that academic achievement was significantly related to students' attributional styles. The results of Gadbois and Sturgeon (23) demonstrated that when making a mistake and/or dealing with a failure in their assignments, unsuccessful students tried to apply the self-handicapping defensive tool, keep others' attitudes positive towards themselves, and protect their ideal identities.…”