Attributions for Academic Success and Failure: An Individual Difference Investigation of Academic Achievement and Gender

Abstract

Ability, effort, and external attributions for academic success/failure as a function of achievement and gender were investigated for 237 elementary school children. Six attributions were the dependent measures for two 2 (achievement) × 2 (gender) MANOVAs. Groups were formed by Total Reading and Total Math scores on the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills/4; for both MANOVAs results yielded significant main effects for achievement, but not for the gender and interaction effects. Follow-up ANOVAs revealed that high achievers attributed success to ability to a significantly greater extent than did low achievers. Low achievers attributed math failure to ability to a significantly greater extent than did high achievers; for reading, the difference in reading failure to ability attributions approached significance. Finally, low achievers attributed reading success to external factors to a greater extent than did high achievers. No differences in effort attributions were noted for high and low achievers.