Causal Attribution Scale for Elementary School Students

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to examine the psychometric properties of a causal attribution scale for school success and failure for basic education students. The scale was constructed based on the Attribution Theory. It was originally composed of 55 Likert scale items with three options related to locus and controllability causal dimensions. It was applied in a sample of 668 basic education students. The factor analysis revealed the good functioning of 35 items and identified a two-factor structure: fator 1 causes for failure and factor 2 causes for success. Its internal consistency was assessed by Cronbach Alpha and was, respectively, 0,91 for the total scale, 0,92 for factor 1 and 0,83 for factor 2. The total variance explained was 29,03%. It is the hope that the scale can be useful for researchers and educators.

Keywords

• atribuição causal
• educação básica
• construção de escala