Attribution reflects students’ ascriptions about the cause of an event or behavior. More specifically, we assessed students’ attributions to ability, effort, context, and luck for their academic successes and failures.
As the figure demonstrates, middle and high students were more likely to attribute their academic success or failure to their effort than college-aged or older students. In comparison, the latter students were more likely attribute their academic success or failure to their learning context (e.g., teachers and courses). There were no differences in students’ attributions to ability and luck.