Transactional development of parental beliefs and academic skills in primary school

Abstract

This study examined transactional development of mothers’ beliefs (self-efficacy, success attributions of a child's success to maternal effort) and children's academic skills. Six hundred sixty-eight children and their mothers were evaluated twice: at the beginning of the first grade and at the end of the third grade. Mothers’ beliefs were measured with a modified Teacher Efficacy Scale; math and reading skills were assessed with tests. The results showed that mothers’ self-efficacy was not related to a child's academic skills. Mutual negative relations between attributions of a child's success to maternal effort and children's academic skills were identified. When children's initial skills were low, mothers’ success attributions increased. In turn, mothers’ higher success attributions at the beginning of school predicted children's lower skills at the end of the third grade. Mothers’ higher education was related to their higher self-efficacy and lower success attributions. The findings emphasise the need to educate parents about attributions and the best ways to support their children's academic development.

Keywords:

• self-efficacy
• attributions
• academic skills
• children

Acknowledgements

We thank Mairi Männamaa, Anu Palu, Piret Soodla, and Krista Uibu for developing academic tests and Teri Talpsep for editing the language.

Funding

Research for this article was supported by the Estonian Research Council [Grant No. IUT03-03].

Notes on contributors

Eve Kikas is a professor of School Psychology in Tallinn University, Estonia. Her research interests include children's academic development and the role of individual (cognitive abilities, motivation) and contextual factors (teacher and parental beliefs and practices, classroom peer context) and their interplay in this development.

Katrin Mägi defended her Ph.D. in University of Jyväskylä in 2011. She has been interested in the development of children's motivational orientations and achievement behaviour and is currently working as a researcher in University of Tallinn, Estonia.