Childrenʹs school performance and their parentsʹ causal attributions to ability and effort: A longitudinal study

The present study investigated the cross-lagged associations between parentsʹ attributions of ability and effort concerning their childrenʹs success and failure, and childrenʹs academic performance in kindergarten and primary school. Two hundred seven children and their parents were followed over three years. The parents completed a questionnaire concerning their causal attributions for their childrenʹs performance three times. Childrenʹs performance in mathematics and reading was tested twice a year. The results showed that childrenʹs high academic performance predicted parentsʹ attributions of their childrenʹs success to ability, whereas low performance predicted parental attributions to effort. Furthermore, parental attributions to ability were positively related to higher levels of later academic performance.