Achievement Attributions of Sixth Grade Children and Their Parents

Abstract

The present study examines the achievement attributions of Greek Cypriot students and their parents. Its aim was to investigate the role of parental and child achievement attributions as parameters of the child's actual school achievement and to examine the existing differences between attributions made by children and their parents. A total of 477 Sixth Grade Greek Cypriot students and their parents participated in the study. A structural equation model was constructed and its ability to fit the data was tested. It was found that child attributions of achievement to effort, ability and other internal factors are positively related to actual achievement, while attributions to luck and external factors are negatively related to achievement. This is in line with earlier findings. Parental and child attributions are not strongly and reliably related. Thus, claims that children develop their own attributions on the basis of their parents’ attributions were not supported. Gender differences were found, with females attributing their achievement to effort more than males did. Finally, underachievers tended to attribute their school performance to external factors (luck, role of others such as parents and teachers), while highly achieving students tended to attribute their performance to their own effort and other internal factors.