Perceived control and academic performance: A comparison of high- and low-performing children on within-person change patterns

Abstract

Children with high expectations of control do better in school than their peers with low perceived control. This finding is based largely on cross-sectional research and longitudinal research with long time intervals. Little attention has been paid to short-term, within-child variability in this important construct. Information about intraindividual change in perceived control, behaviour, and performance is critical to determining the processes by which the link between perception and outcome is affected. In this study, short-term variability in children’s perceived control, perception of task demands, and school performance was assessed and the concurrent and lagged relationships among these variables were considered. High-achieving and low-achieving children were compared. Results of dynamic factor models suggested that both the concurrent and lagged relationships among these variables are stronger and better organised for the high-achieving children. Implications for perceived control theory are discussed.