Parental involvement in homework: relations with parent and student achievement-related motivational beliefs and achievement.

BACKGROUND: Parental involvement in homework is a home-based type of involvement in children's education. Research and theory suggest that it is beneficial for learning and achievement under certain conditions and for particular groups of individuals. AIMS: The study examined whether different types of parents' involvement in homework (autonomy support, control, interference, cognitive engagement) (1) are predicted by their mastery and performance goals for their child and their beliefs of the child's academic efficacy, and (2) predict student achievement goal orientations, efficacy beliefs, and achievement. Grade-level differences were also investigated. SAMPLE: The sample consisted of 282 elementary school (5th grade) and junior high school students (8th grade) and one of their parents. METHODS: Surveys were used for data collection. Structural equation modelling was applied for data analysis. RESULTS: (1) Autonomy support during homework was predicted by parent mastery goal, parents' control and interference by their performance goal and perceptions of child efficacy, and cognitive engagement as supplementary to homework by parent perceptions of child efficacy. (2) Parental autonomy support, control, and interference were differentially associated with student mastery and performance goal orientations, whereas parent cognitive engagement was associated with student efficacy beliefs. (3) The structural model was the same for elementary and junior high school students but the latent means for a number of variables were different. CONCLUSION: Different types of parental involvement in homework were associated with different outcomes with parent autonomy support to be the most beneficial one.

Cognitive and personality predictors of school performance from preschool to secondary school: An overarching model.

In this article, existing research investigating how school performance relates to cognitive, self-awareness, language, and personality processes is reviewed. We outline the architecture of the mind, involving a general factor, g, that underlies distinct mental processes (i.e., executive, reasoning, language, cognizance, and personality processes). From preschool to adolescence, g shifts from executive to reasoning and cognizance processes; personality also changes, consolidating in adolescence. There are three major trends in the existing literature: (a) All processes are highly predictive of school achievement if measured alone, each accounting for ∼20% of its variance; (b) when measured together, cognitive processes (executive functions and representational awareness in preschool and fluid intelligence after late primary school) dominate as predictors (over ∼50%), drastically absorbing self-concepts and personality dispositions that drop to ∼3%-5%; and (c) predictive power changes according to the processes forming g at successive levels: attention control and representational awareness in preschool (∼85%); fluid intelligence, language, and working memory in primary school (∼53%); fluid intelligence, language, self-evaluation, and school-specific self-concepts in secondary school (∼70%). Stability and plasticity of personality emerge as predictors in secondary school. A theory of educational priorities is proposed, arguing that (a) executive and awareness processes; (b) information management; and (c) reasoning, self-evaluation, and flexibility in knowledge building must dominate in preschool, primary, and secondary school, respectively. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Predicting academic self-handicapping in different age groups: the role of personal achievement goals and social goals.

BACKGROUND: Academic self-handicapping refers to the use of impediments to successful performance on academic tasks. Previous studies have shown that it is related to personal achievement goals. A performance goal orientation is a positive predictor of self-handicapping, whereas a task goal orientation is unrelated to self-handicapping. AIMS: The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between academic self-handicapping, goal orientations (task, performance-approach, performance-avoidance), social goals, future consequences and achievement in mathematics. An additional aim was to investigate grade-level and gender differences in relation to academic self-handicapping. SAMPLE: Participants were 702 upper elementary, junior and senior high school students with approximately equal numbers of girls and boys. RESULTS: There were no grade-level or gender differences as regards the use of self-handicapping. The correlations among the variables revealed that, when the whole sample was considered, self-handicapping was positively related to performance goal orientations and pleasing significant others and negatively to achievement in mathematics. The results of hierarchical regression analysis showed that, in upper elementary and junior high schools, the association between achievement in mathematics and self-handicapping was mediated by performance-avoidance goals. In senior high school, only task goal orientation was a negative predictor of self-handicapping.

Implicit theories of intelligence, perceived academic competence, and school achievement: testing alternative models.

In the present study 3 alternative causal models concerning the relationships between implicit theories of intelligence, perceived academic competence, and school achievement were tested. The direction of changes in implicit theories and perceived competence during early adolescence also was examined. A total of 187 fifth and sixth graders were tested and retested a year later, when they were sixth and seventh graders, respectively. Cross-lagged regression analyses indicated that school achievement determined the adoption of a particular implicit theory through the mediation of perceived competence. Implicit theories were found to change toward the adoption of more incremental beliefs and perceived academic competence declined; however, high achievers, as compared with their low- and middle-level classmates, adopted more incremental beliefs and had significantly higher perceived competence.

Effects of face and name presentation on memory for associated verbal descriptors.

Sixty-four participants were tested on immediate and delayed recall of verbal information about people accompanied by photographs of them, in comparison to verbal information about people accompanied by written names of them. Forty-two descriptive sentences were shown in a fixed random order, each associated with a photograph of one of 6 people (7 facts per depicted person), and another 42 sentences were paired with the written name of one of 6 people (7 facts per named person). Participants had to recall as many facts about each face or name as they could, 5 min after the presentation and then a week later. More information was recalled when paired with a photographic image than when paired with a name, especially in the delayed recall condition. Facts referring to a certain face or name were not attributed to a different face or name. Females excelled males on both short- and long-term retention of information. Face-related performance improved significantly when participants became aware of the precise design and memory demands of the task, but name-related performance did not improve.