Attribution theory is concerned with why outcomes occur such as "Why did I fail the exam?" or "Why are they picking on me?" (Weiner, 1986, 2018; see Graham, 2020 for a review). Although this article focuses on achievement, attributions are relevant to the social as well as the achievement domain. Both questions concern failure…

In this article, I describe a program of research on the psychosocial benefits of racial/ethnic diversity in urban middle schools. It is hypothesized that greater diversity can benefit students' mental health, intergroup attitudes, and school adaptation via three mediating mechanisms: (a) the formation and maintenance of cross-ethnic friendships,…

This study examined the effect of close relationships (best friendship and romantic relationship) on late adolescents' casual attributions for peer victimization. A total of 1106 twelfth grade students completed self-report measures of perceived peer victimization, self-blame attribution, psychological maladjustment (loneliness and social…

A 12-week, 32-lesson afterschool intervention was conducted with third-to fifth-grade urban African American boys classified as aggressive. Grounded in attribution theory and organized around the construct of perceived responsibility in self and others, the intervention focused on increasing both social skills and academic motivation. Participants…

The pervasive links between problem behaviors and school adjustment suggest that effective intervention programs to enhance school adjustment must focus both on decreasing the motivation to aggress and increasing the motivation to achieve. We describe a program of intervention research to improve social behavior and academic motivation in…

Aggressive and nonaggressive African American early adolescent males were primed or not primed to perceive intentionally or nonintentionally caused negative outcomes in a hypothetical peer provocation, and then made inferences about the peer's intent. In the unintentional primed condition, aggressive males made more extreme judgments than…

Examined the effects of age and aggressive status on children's understanding and use of excuses. Found links between perceived responsibility, anticipated anger, and excuse giving that were stronger among older boys than younger boys, and stronger among aggressive boys than nonaggressive boys. (ET)

The purpose of this study is to identify developmental trends in children's understanding of pity, anger, and guilt by examining changes in their reasoning about the causes of these emotions. Specifically, relationships between perceived controllability of negative events and these three emotions were examined. A total of 120 children between the…

Five subject groups (adults and 11-, 9-, 7-, and 5-year-olds) were given affective reactions by a teacher, such as anger and pity, and asked to infer the teacher's causal attributions regarding why a student failed, such as low ability of lack of effort. There were systematic linkages between the following affect-attribution pairings:…

Describes research concerned with the way teachers' expressions of sympathy and anger toward failing students influence students' thoughts and self-perceptions. Examines the role that causal attributions play in the understanding and experience of achievement-related affect. (CB)

Three studies examined children's ability to differentiate aggression and social withdrawal using attributional constructs. Found that even very young children understand the meaning of responsibility and are capable of using it to act as intuitive judges, weighing the evidence to make inferences about responsibility and then meting out judgments…

Aggressive and nonaggressive Latino and African-American adolescents read scenarios describing negative outcomes initiated by a hypothetical peer and made judgments about their reactions to the outcomes and about the peer's intentions. Data supported a model in which emotion mediates aggressive behavior. (BC)

This study examines developmental differences in the use of praise and blame as attributional cues among children ages 4 to 12. It was found that the oldest children inferred lower ability given praise and the absence of blame, while the youngest children, with higher ability inferred given praise, and lower ability given blame. (Author/JAZ)

Aggressive and nonaggressive third- through fifth-grade African-American boys were assigned to a behavior intervention program designed to reduce aggressive males' tendency to attribute hostile intentions to peers, an attention training program, or a nonintervention control group. The benefits and limitations of the intervention program are…

Examined relations between characterological versus behavioral self-blaming attributions for victimization and maladjustment in middle school students. Found that self-perceived victimization was associated with characterological self-blame, loneliness, anxiety, and low self-worth. Peer-perceived victimization was related to peer acceptance and…