Young children's causal attributions for success and failure: ‘Self‐enhancing’ boys and ‘self‐derogating’ girls

Abstract

This study examined the types of causal attributions young children make for their own success and failure at performance tasks. The results showed that young children's attributions are different from those subsumed under adult models and that there were significant sex, but not ethnic, differences in the attributional styles employed. Boys exhibited a ‘self‐enhancing’ pattern of attributions, whereas girls' attributions were ‘self‐derogating’.