TY - JOUR
T1 - Cooperative-competitive social orientation and school achievement among Anglo-American and Mexican-American children
AU - Knight, George P.
AU - Nelson, William
AU - Kagan, Spencer
AU - Gumbiner, Jann
N1 - Funding Information:
Reprint requests may be sent to George P. Knight. Department of Psychology, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721. This research was partially supported by a University of California Intramural research grant, No. 5-538404-19900-5.
PY - 1982/4
Y1 - 1982/4
N2 - Researchers have suggested that the relatively poor academic performance of Mexican-American compared to Anglo-American children may result from cultural differences in cooperative-competitive social orientation. To test the relative contribution of cooperative-competitive social orientation as a personality predictor of school achievement, the cooperativeness-competitiveness, field independence, locus of control, self-esteem, and school achievement of 45 Anglo-American and 125 Mexican-American fourth, fifth, and sixth grade children were assessed. The results indicate (1) competitiveness is positively related to school achievement among the Anglo-American children but not the Mexican-American children; (2) among the Anglo-American children competitiveness is a better predictor of school achievement than field independence, locus of control, and self-esteem; (3) the personality variables are moderately but not independently related to school achievement within both cultural groups; and (4) the between-culture variance in the personality variables does not account for the between-culture variance in school achievement. Implications of the present results for understanding within- and between-group differences in school achievement are discussed.
AB - Researchers have suggested that the relatively poor academic performance of Mexican-American compared to Anglo-American children may result from cultural differences in cooperative-competitive social orientation. To test the relative contribution of cooperative-competitive social orientation as a personality predictor of school achievement, the cooperativeness-competitiveness, field independence, locus of control, self-esteem, and school achievement of 45 Anglo-American and 125 Mexican-American fourth, fifth, and sixth grade children were assessed. The results indicate (1) competitiveness is positively related to school achievement among the Anglo-American children but not the Mexican-American children; (2) among the Anglo-American children competitiveness is a better predictor of school achievement than field independence, locus of control, and self-esteem; (3) the personality variables are moderately but not independently related to school achievement within both cultural groups; and (4) the between-culture variance in the personality variables does not account for the between-culture variance in school achievement. Implications of the present results for understanding within- and between-group differences in school achievement are discussed.
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U2 - 10.1016/0361-476X(82)90035-2
DO - 10.1016/0361-476X(82)90035-2
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:49049131931
SN - 0361-476X
VL - 7
SP - 97
EP - 106
JO - Contemporary Educational Psychology
JF - Contemporary Educational Psychology
IS - 2
ER -