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Mothers' Causal Attributions Concerning the Reading Achievement of Their Children With and Without Familial Risk for Dyslexia

University of Jyväskylä, Finland, natale{at}psyka.jyu.fi

Kaisa Aunola

University of Jyväskylä, Finland

Jari-Erik Nurmi

University of Jyväskylä, Finland

Anna-Maija Poikkeus

University of Jyväskylä, Finland

Paula Lyytinen

University of Jyväskylä, Finland

Heikki Lyytinen

University of Jyväskylä, Finland

The present study analyzed data from the Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Dyslexia to investigate the factors to which mothers of children with and without familial risk for dyslexia attribute the causes of their first-grade children's reading achievement. Mothers' causal attributions were assessed three times during their children's first school year. Children's verbal intelligence was assessed at 5 years and their word and nonword reading skills at 6.5 years. The results showed that the higher the word reading skills the children had, the more their mothers attributed their success to ability than to effort. However, if children had familial risk for dyslexia, their mothers' attribution of success to ability decreased during the first grade as compared with the ability attributions of mothers whose children were in the control group.

Key Words: mothers' causal attributions • reading performance • dyslexia • first grade of primary school

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