Mothers' and teachers' attributions of the academic functioning of Israeli second graders: A comparison between social groups

Mothers' and teachers' academic attributions of second graders (20 girls; 20 boys) were investigated. Children were recruited equally from high versus low SES schools. Mothers evaluated their own children and teachers evaluated 10 children in each of four classrooms - compared to classmates - in six domains: reading, writing, arithmetic, fine motor skills, classroom conduct, and homework preparation. Compared to teachers, mothers made higher attributions about children's functioning in reading, arithmetic, and classroom conduct. Mothers' and teachers' attributions about children's functioning were correlated in most domains, except for classroom conduct: LSES mothers' attributions were not related to that of the teachers. On the whole, mothers' and teachers' attributions matched children's measured performance. LSES mothers' attributions were accurate regarding their children's reading and writing performance on objective measures; however, HSES mothers' and teachers' accuracy related only to children's writing performance. The implications of these findings for theory and practice are discussed.