Longitudinal Effects of Perceived Control on Academic Achievement

ABSTRACT

It is well established that perceived control plays an important role in student academic achievement, but little is known about its longitudinal stability, ethnic variation, and developmental effects on subsequent achievement during adolescence. Findings from this study indicated (a) perceived control remains stable during adolescence for each of the four major ethnic groups in the United States; (b) perceived control has a direct effect on subsequent academic achievement as well as an indirect effect, which is mediated by high school student's academic engagement behaviors for all 4 ethnic groups; (c) regarding social contextual factors, students’ perception of teacher and parental support had a positive effect on perceived control, which ultimately impacted the academic achievement of high school students across all 4 ethnic groups.

Keywords:

• academic achievement
• ethnicity
• perceived control
• school engagement
• structural equation modeling

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was supported by the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Research Fund granted to the first author, Sukkyung You, and by the WCU (World Class University) Program funded by the Korean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, consigned to the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (Grant no. R32-2008-000-20023-0) granted to Sehee Hong.