Parents' beliefs about the nature of ability are communicated to their children through parent-child interactions. Parental mindsets are one of the parental beliefs that have received increasing attention over recent years. However, their role in children's motivation and achievement outcomes remains relatively underexplored. Moreover, most…

Patterns of afterschool activities were studied in low-income, ethnically diverse children (n = 1796, M age = 8.7 yrs). Cluster analyses indicated four reliable clusters: (a) regular participation in a high-quality afterschool program, (b) regular participation at the afterschool program combined with other extracurricular activities, (c)…

The purpose of this study was to explore individual mindsets of elementary students and determine the extent to which mindsets reflect fixed or growth perspectives. During this qualitative study, individual interviews were conducted with third and fourth grade students, including ESL (English Second Language) students, middle class students as…

Supporting student wellbeing in schools is increasingly becoming a global priority. However, research and initiatives primarily focus on general wellbeing rather than subject-specific experiences. Given the pervasive levels of mathematics anxiety, negative attitudes, and disengagement in mathematics education, we argue for a more contextualised…

This study examined relations between child-reported teacher emotional support, teaching practices, and children's task-persistent learning behaviour. The study was carried out in Estonia, where a students' first teacher advances with his/her students and teaches all primary subjects in the first 3 years of schooling. In total, 660 sixth-grade…

The goal of this short-term longitudinal study was to examine the functioning of the grit measure; grit's relation to emotional engagement; and grit's prediction of later literacy achievement, above and beyond emotional engagement, among dual language learners. Data were collected at two time points four months apart with dual language learner,…

A survey was given to 87 primary students in Years 3 and 4 at a school participating in the "Encouraging Persistence Maintaining Challenge" project. Its purpose was to give an overview of students' attitudes and beliefs about learning mathematics, their motivation, and their self-awareness. Findings indicate that most students believe…

How children and youth deal with academic challenges and setbacks can make a material difference to their learning and school success. Hence, it is important to investigate the factors that allow students to cope constructively. A process model focused on students' motivational resources was used to frame a study examining whether engagement in…

Many states and school districts are implementing test-based requirements for promotion at key transitional points in students' schooling careers, thus ending the practice of "social promotion"--promoting students who have failed to meet academic standards and requirements for that grade. In 2003-2004, the New York City Department of…