Abstract
Little is known about the contextual antecedents and consequences of children’s academic coping. One hundred and eighty-three-sixth grade students participated in a study that examined a process model whereby children’s perceptions of parent and teacher behaviors were associated with children’s coping strategies through children’s appraisals of failure. It also examined whether these coping strategies were then associated with students’ classroom engagement. Results revealed that parent autonomy support was indirectly associated with defensive coping through its effects on children’s appraisals of failure. There was also some support that cognitive appraisals, particularly threat appraisals were indirectly associated with child reported engagement through coping, suggesting that coping appraisals impact children’s engagement and participation in the classroom through their effects on coping behavior/strategy use. The findings underscore the importance of parent autonomy support for children’s appraisals of failure, coping, and engagement.
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Appendix
Appendix
The children’s coping with academic failure questionnaire (Raftery-Helmer and grolnick 2016) items
Problem solving
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1.
When I do badly on an important test, I try to find out what I did wrong so that it won’t happen again.
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2.
When I do badly on an important test, I figure out how to do better next time.
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3.
When I do badly on an important test, I try to see what I did wrong.
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4.
When I do badly on an important test, I work harder next time.
Help seeking
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1.
When I do badly on an important test, I ask for help with understanding the material.
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2.
When I do badly on an important test, I get help with questions I don’t understand.
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3.
When I do badly on an important test, I ask the teacher to explain what I didn’t understand.
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4.
When I do badly on an important test, I ask the teacher to go over it with me.
Support for feeling
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1.
When I do badly on an important test, I talk about my feelings with someone who really understands.
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2.
When I do badly on an important test, I tell others how I am feeling.
Blame
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1.
When I do badly on an important test, I blame the teacher.
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2.
When I do badly on an important test, I say the test was unfair.
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3.
When I do badly on an important test, I say the teacher made the test too hard.
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4.
When I do badly on an important test, I say the teacher didn’t cover things on the test.
Avoidance
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1.
When I do badly on an important test, I not to look at the test.
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2.
When I do badly on an important test, I try to forget about it.
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3.
When I do badly on an important test, I won’t think about it.
Rumination
When I do badly on an important test, I worry that the other students will think that I am dumb.
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1.
When I do badly on an important test, I feel really stupid.
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2.
When I do badly on an important test, I feel really mad at myself.
What I felt scale (Lengua and Long 2002; Sheets et al. 1996) items
Negative evaluation by others
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1.
When you did badly on an important test, you thought you might get yelled at or punished.
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2.
When you did badly on an important test, you thought that someone you like was angry at you.
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3.
When you did badly on an important test, you thought that someone you care about thought you had done something bad.
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4.
When you did badly on an important test, you though that someone you care about might say bad things to you.
Negative self-evaluation
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1.
When you did badly on an important test, you thought it was your fault.
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2.
When you did badly on an important test, you thought that you had done something bad or wrong.
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3.
When you did badly on an important test, you thought that you were not as good as other kids.
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4.
When you did badly on an important test, you thought it would always keep happening.
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5.
When you did badly on an important test, you thought that nothing ever goes right for you.
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6.
When you did badly on an important test, you thought that a lot of things were going badly for you.
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7.
When you did badly on an important test, you thought you made a big mistake.
Challenge
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1.
When you did badly on an important test, you told yourself, “this will be hard, but I can handle it”.
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2.
When you did badly on an important test, you told yourself that things like this happen to everyone, not just you.
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3.
When you did badly on an important test, you thought that people are still going to like you and think you’re a good person.
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4.
When you did badly on an important test, you reminded yourself that you’ve made it through this before.
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5.
When you did badly on an important test you though that something good could come from it.
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6.
When you did badly on an important test, you thought that you would be able to figure the problem out.
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7.
When you did badly on an important test, you thought that you were eager to face the problem and deal with it directly.
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8.
When you did badly on an important test, you knew you would work it out and come out ahead.
Resources
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1.
When you did badly on an important test, you thought that there are people in your life who can help you deal with it.
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2.
When you did badly on an important test, you reminded yourself that people care about you.
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3.
When you did badly on an important test, you reminded yourself that you are generally a strong or capable person.
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4.
When you did badly on an important test, you thought about all the people and things in your life that could help.
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5.
When you did badly on an important test, you knew you had the resources to deal with it.
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6.
When you did badly on an important test you thought you would be able to figure the problem out.
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Raftery-Helmer, J.N., Grolnick, W.S. Parent and teacher effects on academic coping and classroom engagement: Testing a motivational model. Motiv Emot 42, 638–652 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-018-9676-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-018-9676-4