Katja Natale

1
Parents causal attributions, subject
specificity, and childrens school performance

• Katja Natale
• Kaisa Aunola, Jari-Erik Nurmi, Anna-Maija
  Poikkeus Marja-Kristiina Lerkkanen
• University of Jyväskylä

2
Parents causal attributions

• Parents have different beliefs and ways to
  explain and evaluate their childrens
  achievement, i.e. causal attributions.
• These ways to reason explain childrens
  achievement develop already when the children are
  very young
• Parents own experiences in achievement
  situations
• Following childs development closely my baby is
  so smart
• Two most common causes to which parents typically
  attribute their childrens school performance are
  ability and effort.
• Ability is an internal, stable uncontrollable
  property for a child
• Effort is an internal, unstable controllable
  property for a child
• Other typical causal attributions used by parents
  are task difficulty, and teachers or parents
  help
• External and uncontrollable properties for a child

3
Domain specificity of parents causal attributions

• But how do parents make attributions about their
  childrens academic success?
• Domain-specificity vs. Generality
• of parents causal attributions
• Do parents think that their childrens academic
  success depends more on general causes, such as
  general ability and effort...
• e.g. My child succeeds at school because she /
  he has high ability.
• ...or do parents think that their children
  succeed because of domain specific causes
• e.g. My child succeed in math because of ability
  and in reading because of high effort.
• Kindergarten 7th grade children

4
Learning Interactions between Teachers, Parents
and Students pilot study

• Learning Interactions between Teachers, Parents
  and Students pilot study (Lerkkanen, Poikkeus,
  et al., 2006)
• 139 kindergarten children and their parents
• Parents domain-specific causal attributions
  (November March)
• If my child does well in math / reading, it is
  probably because
• the child has ability
• the child has effort
• tasks are easy for the child
• the child gets help from his/her teacher
• the child gets help from the parents
• 5-point Likert scale

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Mothers domain-specific causal attributions
MATHEMATICS
Mothers attributions for success in
READING
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Fathers domain-specific causal attributions
MATHEMATICS
Fathers attributions for success in
READING
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Domain-specificity in parents causal attributions

• Parents causal attributions for childrens
  success in reading and mathematics correlated
  highly (r gt .74, plt.001)
• Cronbachs alpha reliabilities were also high
  (varied from .85 to .97)
• Parents causal attributions during the
  childrens kindergarten year focused on their
  childrens general success rather than
  domain-specific success in mathematics and
  reading
• In kindergarten children do not practice academic
  skills -gt they are not so important yet
• In kindergarten children are typically highly
  motivated in doing different school-related tasks
  -gt parents perception of childrens motivation
  is more general than domain-specific
• Childrens age

8
Jyväskylä Entrance into Primary School -Study

• Jyväskylä Entrance into Primary School (JEPS)
  Study (Nurmi Aunola, 1999)
• 196 children (104 boys 92 girls) and their
  parents
• Children were 5-6-years old at the baseline
• Follow-up 7th Grade
• All children of two medium-size districts in
  Central Finland who were born in 1993
• Information about childrens performance was
  gathered once at the beginning and at the end of
  each school year
• Reading
• Letter identification, reading words sentences
  test, sentence comprehension
• Mathematics
• Knowledge of numbers, counting skills, number
  identification, word problems, basic arithmetic

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• Parents causal attributions were asked three
  times once in the middle of each school year
• 1st and 2nd grade (general success) 7th grade
  (domain-specific success in mathematics reading
  generally at school)
• Causal attributions concerning childrens success
  at school
• If my child does well in math / reading, it is
  probably because
• The child has abilities
• The child has effort
• The child gets good teaching
• The tasks are too easy for the child
• Rank-order 1-4

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Mothers domain-specific causal attributions at
7th grade
MATHEMATICS
Mothers attributions for success in
READING
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Fathers domain-specific causal attributions at
7th grade
MATHEMATICS
Fathers attributions for success in
READING
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Domain-specificity in parents causal
attributions7th grade

• Parents causal attributions for childrens
  success in reading and mathematics correlated
  highly
• Correlations between domain-specific causal
  attributions varied from .45 to .83 (plt.001)
• Cronbachs alpha reliabilities were also high
  (varied from .62 to .91)
• Parents causal attributions during the
  childrens 7th grade focused on their childrens
  general success rather than domain-specific
  success in mathematics and reading
• Childrens age?

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Parents causal attributions childrens
performance

• Past research beginning of primary school
• Childrens high academic performance increases
  parents ability attributions for success
• My child succeeds at school because he / she has
  abilities.
• Childrens poor academic performance increases
  parents effort attributions for success
• My child succeeds at school because he / she
  tries hard.
• And vice versa
• Are the associations between parents causal
  attributions childrens academic performance
  similar when children move to 7th grade?

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Parents causal attributions for success
childrens performance7th grade
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Mothers causal attributions for success
childrens performance7th grade
7th grade
2nd grade

My child succeeds because he / she has
abilities.

• High performance
• in reading
• High performance
• in math

-
-
My child succeeds because he / she has effort.
-
My child succeeds because he / she gets good
teaching.
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Mothers causal attributions for success
childrens performance7th grade

• 7th grade
• High performance
• in reading
• High performance
• in math

2nd grade My child succeeds because he / she has
abilities.


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Fathers causal attributions for success
childrens performance7th grade
7th grade
2nd grade

My child succeeds because he / she has
abilities.
High performance in math
-
My child succeeds because he / she has effort.
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Conclusions

• Parents causal attributions were general rather
  than domain-specific during the childrens
  kindergarten and 7th grade
• Especially mothers causal attributions were
  associated with childrens academic performance
• Mothers may be more involved in their childrens
  school work than fathers
• More knowledge about childrens skills
• Mothers ability attributions positively
  predicted their childrens later academic
  performance at the 7th grade
• Support from mothers
• Feeling of capability

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Future

• How parents causal attributions change when
  their children move to higher grades?
• Will their causal attributions be more
  domain-specific later?
• How parents causal attributions are communicated
  to children?
• Every day interactions

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Thank you!
21
Parents causal attributions childrens
performancekindergarten