Mothers' Attributions for Their Learning Disabled Child's Successes and Failures.

The attributions of mothers of learning disabled and nondisabled children about the causes of their child's successes and failures were assessed. The results indicated that, compared to mothers of nondisabled children, the mothers of learning disabled children attributed successes less to ability and more to luck, while attributing failures more to a lack of ability and less to bad luck. Responses indicated that mothers of learning disabled children were aware of their child's attributions for performances in reading, and that they belittled their own ability to make things run smoothly at home. Results are discussed in terms of ways in which parents may foster more adaptive attributions in their children. The sizable literature on children's locus of control and causal attributions reflects the importance currently accorded to the effects of children's achievement-related beliefs on their behavior in academic settings. Research has indicated that learning disabled children hold beliefs that, while perhaps a logical reaction to past school failures (Nicholls, 1979), may tend to perpetuate less than optimal motivation and performance. Locus-of-control studies examine the extent to which one believes that events are due to one's own actions rather than to uncontrollable factors like task difficulty, the behavior of other people, or luck. Results of such studies have consistently found learning disabled children to believe that outcomes in general (Fincham & Barling, 1978; Hallahan, Gajar, Cohen, & Tarver, 1978) and positive outcomes in particular (Chapman & Boersma, 1979; Pearl, Bryan, & Donahue, 1980) are less under their control than is believed by nondisabled children. Studies examining causal attributions have found that learning disabled students are less likely than others to attribute success to ability (Pearl, in press; Pearl, Bryan, & Herzog, Note 1), less likely to attribute failure to a lack of effortf (Pearl, in press; Pearl et al., 1980), and more likely to attribute their school performance, if they are dissatisfied with it, to a lack of ability (Deshler, Schumaker, Alley, Warner, & Clark, Note 2). While these studies demonstrate learning disabled (LD) children's uncharitable interpretations of the causes of their own successes and failures, less is known about the views held by the children's significant others about different outcomes. To the extent that teachers and families of LD children share the children's harsh interpretation of their own performances, the reactions of the others toward these performances may be influenced and hence the children's attitudes may be reinforced. Research by Chapman and Boersma (1979) bears most directly on the issue of how parents of learning disabled children view their children's achievement behavior. Using a questionnaire RUTH PEARL, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor, University of Illinois, Chicago, and Research Associate, Chicago Institute for Learning Disabilities. TANIS BRYAN, Ph.D., is Professor of Education, University of Illinois, Chicago, and Principal Investigator, Chicago Institute for Learning Disabilities. Volume 5, Winter 1982 53 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.96 on Sun, 02 Oct 2016 05:50:20 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms measure to assess mothers' responses to their children's achievement behavior, they found that mothers of learning disabled children reported less positive and more negative reactions to their children's achievement experiences than did mothers of control children. Mothers of learning disabled children also held lower expectations of future academic achievement than did mothers of normal children. Other research has found that parents of learning disabled children hold more negative views of their children than do parents of nondisabled children. They describe their learning disabled children as more difficult to talk to, as having less ability to control impulses and structure the environment, and as being more anxious than their siblings (Owen, Adams, Forrest, Stolz, & Fisher, 1971). Compared to parents of nondisabled children, parents of learning disabled children view their children as less considerate, less able to receive affection, and more clinging (Strag, 1972). Given the mothers' attitudes about and behaviors directed toward their children reported in the aforementioned studies, it was predicted that mothers of learning disabled children would make attributions about their children's successes and failures that were similar to those that have been found to be made by the children themselves. To test this assumption mothers of learning disabled and nondisabled children were given a questionnaire in which they were asked to indicate the importance of ability, effort, task difficulty, and luck for their child's successes and failures in reading, on puzzles, and in social situations. Additional questions were asked to ascertain how important the mothers thought their child viewed the four factors as causes of reading performances, and to examine how important they viewed their own ability, effort, luck, and task difficulty as causes of a smooth running of their homes. Questions about this latter issue were included to evaluate whether or not the mothers made the same attributions about their own successes and failures as they made about their children's.