The authors proposed a model to explain how epistemological beliefs, achievement motivation, and learning approach related to achievement. The authors assumed that epistemological beliefs influence achievement indirectly through their effect on achievement motivation and learning approach. Participants were 1,041 6th-grade students. Results of the…

This article considers school climate and perceptions of social disorder. When a school is characterized by disorder or physical risk, basic educational goals and processes are jeopardized. We use survey data from 33 public schools serving grades 6-8 in a large mid-Atlantic city to examine relationships among physical disorder (e.g., broken…

Principals are held accountable for student achievement although most studies find that they have no direct effect on it. In this study we tested a model hypothesizing that principals contribute to student achievement indirectly through teacher commitment and beliefs about their collective capacity. Path analysis of data from 205 elementary…

Method effects associated with item wording have been explored in a variety of instruments and found that the practice of using positively- and negatively- worded items may introduce systematic measurement errors that disrupt analyses and interpretations of the results. Therefore, the first purpose in the present study was to explore if method…

This study examined reciprocal associations among adolescents' negative feedback-seeking, depressive symptoms, perceptions of friendship quality, and peer-reported social preference over an 11-month period. A total of 478 adolescents in grades 6-8 completed measures of negative feedback-seeking, depressive symptoms, friendship quality,…