Learned Helplessness, Test Anxiety, and Academic Achievement: A Longitudinal Analysis

Abstract

The stability of individual differences in test anxiety and learned helplessness over a 2-year period and their relation to concurrent and future school achievement were examined. Several issues regarding the assessment of learned helplessness are also addressed. 82 children were administered measures of test anxiety and helplessness in the third grade and again in the fifth grade. Teachers also provided reports of learned helpless and mastery-oriented behaviors at these 2 grade levels. It was found that: (a) both self-report and teacher-report measures of helplessness were stable over the 2-year period; (b) helplessness in the third grade was related to achievement test scores in the fifth grade; and (c) teacher reports may be a viable means of identifying helplessness. These findings are discussed in terms of cognitive developmental changes in children's understanding of effort and ability, and their implications for the assessment of learned helplessness are outlined.

Full Issue October 2016

“…This finding shows consistency with other results published in current relevant literature (e.g., Chapell et al, 2005;Culler & Holahan, 1980;Fincham, Hokoda, & Sanders, 1989;Seipp, 1991). Other studies have found that learning and academic achievement decrease as a result of high anxiety, and increase as a result of reinforcement and anxiety free learning atmospheres (Hembree, 1988;Rana & Mahmood, 2010).…”

“…Thus, the use of quantitative methods to approach this research question would complete such qualitative explorations. Also, despite there are a few studies examining the relationship between academic achievement and test anxiety levels of students (e.g., Carden, Bryant, & Moss, 2004;Chapell, Blanding, Silverstein, Takahashi, Newman, Gubi, & McCann, 2005;Culler & Holahan, 1980;Fincham, Hokoda, & Sanders, 1989), the relationship between teaching-learning conceptions and academic achievement with the mediating role of test anxiety in this context is not present in the relevant literature. While teachers' teaching-learning conceptions might have an impact on the academic achievement levels of students, test anxiety may have a significant role in the relationship between those two variables.…”

Teacher identification of student learned helplessness in mathematics

“…Development of the SBC is consistent with Gronlund's (1971) criteria for improving scale construction as the attributes being rated are directly observable as behaviours, categories and points in the scale are defined clearly, between three and seven rating positions are provided, and the characteristics being rated are recognised as being of educational significance. However, Fincham et al (1989) reported that although the learned helpless and mastery orientation subscales are highly correlated (r = -0.81), the psychometric robustness of the checklist had not been established. Further, the issue of whether the SBC specifically measured learned helplessness and mastery orientation or whether the items reflected academic competence (Harter, 1983) had not been addressed.…”

“…The SBC, presented in Appendix 1, is composed of 24 items, with 12 items designated by Fincham et al (1989) as measuring learned helplessness (items 1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 12, 14, 17, 18, 20, 21, 23) and 12 items as measuring mastery orientation (items 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 11, 13, 15, 16, 19, 22, 24). The extent to which the learned helpless and mastery-oriented items describe students' behaviour in the classroom over the previous two to three months is rated by their teacher on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (not true) through 3 (somewhat or sometimes true) to 5 (very true).…”

“…Thus the question raised by Fincham et al (1989) of whether the SBC measured learned helplessness and mastery orientation or involved a single underlying latent dimension of academic competence was addressed through the fit statistics from the Rasch analyses which indicated how well each item addressed the underlying unidimensional construct (Callingham & Bond, 2006) and provided evidence of the internal consistency of the scale (Curtis & Bowman, 2007). Rasch modelling seeks to "scale the data in such a way that interval scale data were obtained for the variable formed" (Wolf, 1994, p. 4926).…”