The phenomenon of learned helplessness in children has been studied extensively in the laboratory but little is known about its impact outside of the laboratory and its genesis in the family. Consequently, a two phase study is proposed, each phase of which addresses one of the above issues. In the first phase of the study, third grade children will participate in three testing sessions involving the administration of several questionnaires and a measure of behavior change following exposure to unsolvable problems. This phase of the study examines whether learned helplessness affects attributions made for actual grades obtained by children, their perceived self-competence and depressed mood. A subgoal of this phase of the study is to evaluate alternatives to the cumbersome methods traditionally used in the identification of learned helpless and mastery oriented children. To this end teachers will complete a student checklist and children will complete a self-report attribution questionnaire designed by the PI. The second phase of the study, concerning the familial origins of learned helplessness, involves a mail survey of the parents of children participating in the first phase of the study and a laboratory, observational study of mother-child behavior when the child is exposed to success and failure experiences. This phase of the study will examine the relationship between parental attribution style, depressed mood and helplessness in children. It will also provide information on possible maternal behaviors (e.g., performance feedback, contingencies of feedback, etc.) associated with learned helpless and mastery oriented response patterns in children. Finally, both mother and child attributions for the child's performance within the experimental session will be examined. The data obtained in this research project will provide initial information on the socialization of learned helpless and mastery oriented response patterns in the family as well as evaluate the general impact of these response patterns. It thus provides necessary information for the prevention of learned helplessness in children.
