Authors evaluated the Student Behavior Checklist-Brief (SBC-B) to test whether teacher-reports of student learning approach (i.e., learned helplessness [LH] and mastery orientation [MO]) were invariant across academic subjects. The current sample includes ethnically diverse seventh and eighth grade students (N = 145; 53 percent male) and six teams…

Although learned helplessness has a long research tradition, neither its contextual predictors nor the ways that they take effect are fully understood. This study inquired into the role of selected aspects of the home learning environment for academic helplessness. We tested whether three dimensions of parent-child school-related…

Background: The development of learning attitudes during middle school transition and adaptation is critical, as shown by Self-Determination Theory (SDT). However, the development of adolescents' learning attitudes throughout middle school and the impact of parenting styles on this development remains largely unexplored. Objective: This research…

A significant number of students with learning disabilities encounter challenges in acquiring knowledge, particularly in mathematics. Nonetheless, having a disability or being disadvantaged is not a preference or decision made by these students - or more generally, by these individuals; rather, this label is assigned to them by the prevailing…

Measurement limitations have hindered research on learned helplessness (LH) and mastery orientation (MO) in the classroom. We reduced the 24-item Student Behavior Checklist to a 6-item scale and tested the abbreviated measure for evidence of reliability and validity in a sample of 5th and 6th graders (N = 299). We then replicated findings in an…

It is well known that teachers frequently observe a decline in the scholastic motivation of many adolescent students, which in turn is often associated with a decline in students' individual school self-concept. In contrast, less is known about the association between students' individual school self-concept and school engagement, or the related…

Background: Escalation of youth violence within a large geographic school-complex area in southeastern rural Hawaii became a major problem in 2006. How cultural forces impact the problem was an impetus to examine youth violence from perspectives of adults and children in rural communities. Gathering these data was an essential first step toward…

Not all children cope equally well with the stresses and traumas life throws their way, and every educator recognizes that "deer in the headlights" look some children get when current events and past traumas combine to trigger a fight-or-flight stress response. No matter how safe the classroom may be in reality, trauma deactivates cognitive…