Fatalism, Attributions of Failure and Academic Performance in Mapuche and Non-Mapuche Chilean Students

This study investigated the role of fatalism as a cultural value orientation and causal attributions for past failure in the academic performance of high school students in the Araucania Region of Chile. Three thousand three hundred and fourty eight Mapuche and Non-Mapuche students participated in the study. Consistent with the Culture and Behavior model that guided the research, the test of causal models based on the analysis of structural equations show that academic performance is in part a function of variations in the level of fatalism, directly as well as indirectly through its influence in the attribution processes and failure-related emotions. In general, the model representing the proposed structure of relations among fatalism, attributions, and emotions as determinants of academic performance fit the data for both Mapuche and non-Mapuche students. However, results show that some of the relations in the model are different for students from these two ethnic groups. Finally, according to the results from the analysis of causal models, family SES appear to be the most important determinant of fatalism.

Relación entre estilos parentales, intensidad psicopatológica y tipo de sintomatología en una muestra clínica adolescente

Se realizó una investigación con el objetivo de analizar la relación entre los estilos parentales percibidos, la intensidad de la psicopatología presentada y las dimensiones sintomáticas internalizante-externalizante en una muestra clínica de adolescentes con edades comprendidas entre los 13 y los 18 años. Los resultados hallados indican que la intensidad psicopatológica está asociada con la edad, a mayor edad mayor intensidad, y con el género femenino. Solamente dos dimensiones del estilo parental percibido se hallaron relacionadas con la intensidad psicopatológica: el control psicológico de forma negativa y el humor, de forma positiva. Al contrario que en otros estudios consultados, la dimensión control psicológico apareció vinculada con sintomatología externalizante y no con la internalizante.

The emergence and evolution of optimistic expectations in schoolchildren

When we study optimism in children, we note the temporary emergence of a bias that leads them to make optimistic predictions. In this study we intend to learn more about changes that can be observed in the optimistic bias of 6- to 12-year old schoolchildren when they predict future events, and in the way they justify those predictions. A total of 77 pupils participated in this study; we evaluated each one of them individually with a Piagetian interview, asking them to formulate predictions about a series of hypothetical situations. After analyzing whether a child's prediction implied that the situation would maintain itself or would change for better or for worse, we classified the justifications they provided for their predictions. Results show that these subjects regarded positive change as more likely in the case of psychological or hybrid events than for purely biological ones, and that younger children tended to display a greater bias in favor of the likelihood of positive change. These younger children justified their predictions stating that nature or the passing of time could be responsible for the changes, without needing further intervention on the part of other agents. Older children, on the other hand, tended to provide similar kinds of explanations to justify their expectation of stasis.