ATTRIBUTIONS FOR ACADEMIC-SUCCESS AND FAILURE - AN INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCE INVESTIGATION OF ACADEMIC-ACHIEVEMENT AND GENDER

Ability, effort, and external attributions for academic success/failur e as a function of achievement and gender were investigated for 237 el ementary school children. Six attributions were the dependent measures for two 2 (achievement) x 2 (gender) MANOVAs. Groups were formed by T otal Reading and Total Math scores on the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills/4; for both MANOVAs results yielded significant main effects fo r achievement, but not for the gender and interaction effects. Follow- up ANOVAs revealed that high achievers attributed success to ability t o 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 failur e to ability attributions approached significance. Finally, low achiev ers attributed reading success to external factors to a greater extent than did high achievers. No differences in effort attributions were n oted for high and low achievers.