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Underachievement and Attributions Among Students Attending Schools Stratified by Student Ability

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Abstract

Underachievement among students tends to be a social product. In this case, schools stratified to admit students of lower academic ability might be more likely to produce underachievers. A reason for this is the encouragement of external attribution and the discouragement of internal attribution among students in these schools. These hypotheses get support from a study of 2720 junior high school students in Hong Kong. This study shows that the hypothesized relationships generally held for six alternative methods of identifying underachievers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Applied Social Studies, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong, P.R. China

    Chau-Kiu Cheung & Elisabeth Rudowicz

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  1. Chau-Kiu Cheung
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  2. Elisabeth Rudowicz
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Correspondence to Chau-Kiu Cheung.

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Cheung, CK., Rudowicz, E. Underachievement and Attributions Among Students Attending Schools Stratified by Student Ability. Social Psychology of Education 6, 303–323 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025620420642

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