The Relationship among Strategic Writing Behavior, Writing Motivation, and Writing Performance with Young, Developing Writers

Do writing motivational beliefs predict middle school students' writing performance?

“…Three, we examined students' attitudes toward writing for academic, recreational, print and digital contexts. Writing attitudes did not uniquely predict writing performance in previous studies after other variables such as self‐efficacy were controlled (e.g., Graham et al, ). It is possible that attitudes toward writing are better predictors when they are more closely tied to specific contexts (consistent with Graham's, 2018, theory of writing).…”

“…One, in contrast to previous investigations, which employed researcher‐designed measures of writing, we administered a norm‐referenced measure of writing, which increased the likelihood that writing performance was tested in a technically sound manner. Two, we focused on middle school students versus younger developing writers, as was carried out in prior studies (e.g., Graham et al, ). Middle school students have had more opportunity to develop their motivational beliefs about writing than younger students, increasingly the likelihood these beliefs would predict writing performance.…”

“…Several previous studies examining if writing attitudes and self‐efficacy predicted writing performance controlled for variance related to students' gender (Graham et al, ; Graham et al, ; Lee, ), as girls tend to be better writers than boys (Troia, Harbaugh, Shankland, Wolbers, & Lawerence, ). We also controlled for variance due to gender in this investigation, but controlled for three additional variables as well.…”

“…While none of the studies reviewed by Graham examined both the combined and unique predictive effects of both writing attitudes and self‐efficacy, more recent studies did. A study by Graham, Kiuhara, Harris, and Fishman () reported attitudes toward writing and writing self‐efficacy collectively predicted the quality and length of personal narrative stories written by fourth grade writers, with self‐efficacy making unique contributions to predicting both writing outcomes. Likewise, Graham, Wijekumar et al () reported that these two variables together statistically predicted the length and quality of science essays written by fifth grade students using source materials, with self‐efficacy making a unique contribution to predicting writing quality.…”

“…A study by Graham, Kiuhara, Harris, and Fishman () reported attitudes toward writing and writing self‐efficacy collectively predicted the quality and length of personal narrative stories written by fourth grade writers, with self‐efficacy making unique contributions to predicting both writing outcomes. Likewise, Graham, Wijekumar et al () reported that these two variables together statistically predicted the length and quality of science essays written by fifth grade students using source materials, with self‐efficacy making a unique contribution to predicting writing quality. This was not the case, however, in a follow‐up study conducted with fifth grade students (Wijekumar et al, in press), as these two motivational writing beliefs did not collectively or uniquely predict the length or quality of social studies essays written from source material.…”