Student problem behaviors in early elementary school have been associated with increased teacher burnout, negative emotions, and stress, along with negative student outcomes, including increased risk of emotional and behavioral disorders (EBDs). This study examined the impact of BEST in CLASS--Elementary (BEST in CLASS-E), a teacher-delivered Tier…

English learners' (ELs) day-to-day experiences in school change when reclassified as fully English proficient. Prior research, however, is mixed on how reclassification influences outcomes. Many studies also do not or cannot explore key long-term outcomes or identify impacts over time. In this study I leverage longitudinal student data in a…

A great deal of research shows that the way in which children attribute causes to their successes and failures in school has implications for the development of their academic self-concept (ASC). The most common attributions are ability, effort, task difficulty, and luck. The present study asked 68 elementary school children aged seven to eight…

Previous research has shown that observing peers' success in learning is important for the development of children's belief in themselves as learners. However, in research, these observations are seldom made in actual classroom learning activities. This study investigated how children explain factors that lead to their peers' successes in…

This randomized controlled trial focused on 59 struggling readers in the third and fourth grades (30 female, 29 male) and examined the efficacy of an intervention aimed at increasing students' multisyllabic word reading (MWR). The study also explored the relative effects of an embedded motivational beliefs (MB) training component. Struggling…

The present longitudinal study examined the reciprocal relationships between teachers' causal attributions and children's math performance and task persistence. In total, 760 elementary school children and their teachers participated in this study. The children were tested in math twice, at the end of the second and third grades. At both time…

The present longitudinal study examined the cross-lagged relations between parental causal attributions of children's math success to children's ability, parental help, children's math performance and task persistence. A total of 735 children, their mothers, fathers and teachers were assessed twice--at the end of the second and the third grades.…

To gain new perspective on the development of understandings and perceptions of income inequality, this study compared the reactions of six, eight, and 10-year-olds to a rich man and a poor man and the winners and losers of a contest of skill and a game of chance. Age differences in attributions for outcomes reflected a strengthening with age of…

This study examined the development of school-related causality beliefs which are children's generalized perceptions of the utility or power of different categories of specific means in producing school outcomes. Based on the action theory perspective, we analyzed the developmental model of these beliefs as well as the trajectories of the…

Teachers are the primary agents for creating and maintaining a positive classroom climate--and promoting healthy interpersonal relations with, and among, their students (including the prevention of school bullying) is key to achieving this goal. For this study it was posited that students' willingness to report bullying to their teachers is an…

This quantitative, causal-comparative study examined the reading achievement of third grade students to ascertain the reading health of elementary students as measured through South Carolina's standardized assessment, the Palmetto Assessment of State Standards (PASS). The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a significant difference…

A total of 137 third- through eighth-grade students were asked to respond to a series of statements concerning 6 male peers described as having various undesirable characteristics (i.e., poor student, poor athlete, extremely overweight, extremely aggressive, extremely shy, or having the symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). The…

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…

Relatively little is understood about the role of hostile attributions in children's use of relational aggression with peers, or about the impact of family processes on children's attributions about ambiguous provocations. This cross-sectional study investigated associations among hostile attributions made by children, mothers, and fathers, and…

This study set out to examine parents' perceptions of the malleability of their child's academic competencies. A total of 97 mothers and fathers were asked to rate their child's potential for improving her/his competencies in mathematics and Finnish, using both intrapersonal and interpersonal criteria in their ratings. These two criteria were…