Parental explanatory style and its relationship to the classroom performance of disabled and nondisabled children

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between the explanatory style of parents for events involving their school-aged children and the children's classroom performance. Parents and teachers of 52 disabled and 40 nondisabled elementary school students completed questionnaires. Those children whose parents attributed bad events to internal, stable, and global causes tended not to fulfill their potential in the classroom, according to ratings by their teachers. The same patterns held for both disabled and nondisabled children. Findings suggest that the attributional beliefs of parents can affect the behavior of their children.