Harsh environments are known to predict deficits in children's cognitive abilities. Life history theory approaches challenge this interpretation, proposing stressed children's cognition becomes specialized to solve problems in fitness-enhancing ways. The goal of this study was to examine associations between early environmental harshness and…

Self-regulated learning (SRL) theorists propose that learners' motivations and cognitive and metacognitive processes interact dynamically during learning, yet researchers typically measure motivational constructs as stable factors. In this study, self-efficacy was assessed frequently to observe its variability during learning and how learners'…

Path analysis was used to test the predictive and mediational roles of self-efficacy beliefs in mathematics problem solving for 350 undergraduates. The predictive role of self-efficacy supports the hypothesized role of self-efficacy in the social cognitive theory of A. Bandura (1986). (SLD)