ACADEMIC PERSISTENCE AND ATTRIBUTIONAL STYLE IN 5TH GRADERS

Students' attributional styles regarding academic successes and failur es were hypothesized to be moderators of persistence in academic tasks . Attributional style was assessed in 72 fifth graders using the Sydne y Attribution Scale (SAS). Persistence was assessed using two behavior al measures and teacher ratings. The behavioral persistence measures i nvolved the number of tasks attempted and time spent working on a diff icult reading task and a problem-solving task. The behavioral measures were highly correlated (r = .74) but were unrelated to teacher-rated persistence. Attributional style predicted teacher-rated persistence, R2 = .42, F(12, 59) = 3.6, p <.001, but did not predict any,of the beh avioral persistence measures. Results suggest that students' self-repo rted attributional styles are related to teacher judgments of persiste nce. The lack of agreement between teacher ratings and behavioral meas ures of persistence may have implications for the generalization of re search findings relying on either behavioral or teacher-rated persiste nce measures.