title: A longitudinal examination of African American adolescents' attributions about achievement outcomes.
abstract: Developmental, gender, and academic domain differences in causal attributions and the influence of attributions on classroom engagement were explored longitudinally in 115 African American adolescents. In Grades 8 and 11, adolescents reported attributions for success and failure in math, English and writing, and science. In Grade 11, English and mathematics teachers rated students' classroom engagement. Boys were more likely than girls to attribute math successes to high ability and to attribute English failures to low ability. Both genders' ability attributions for math became more negative from eighth to eleventh grades. Grade 8 attributions of math failure to lack of ability were negatively related to Grade 11 math classroom engagement. Results illustrate the gendered nature of motivational beliefs among Black youth.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA. akilah@email.unc.edu
authors.forename: Akilah D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Swinton
authors.forename: Beth
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kurtz-Costes
authors.forename: Stephanie J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Rowley
authors.forename: Ndidi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Okeke-Adeyanju
mesh_terms: D000124:Achievement; D000293:Adolescent; D001288:Attention; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D012424:Rural Population; D012649:Self Concept; D012737:Sex Factors; D015144:Southeastern United States; D013240:Stereotyping