When you hear stories about a person or group of people who accomplish something unbelievable, against impossible odds, what do you think is the common thread in these stories? Perseverance? Determination? Grit? How about hope? Is hope an essential characteristic for everyone who embarks on a challenging journey? Can hope be cultivated, and can it help us achieve academic goals?
Self-esteem, attributional style, and hope may factor into our ability to believe in ourselves and in the likelihood of good future outcomes. Do these characteristics lead to better academic achievement? A 2007 study of 784 Australian high school students focused on this triad of “positive thinking” variables with the expectation that they may have a positive impact on future grades.
How were hope, self-esteem, and attributional style defined in the study? “Self-esteem reflects people’s evaluations of self-worth and competence, hope reflects people’s evaluations of the extent they can achieve their goals, and attributional style reflects people’s evaluations of the causes of positive and negative events in their life” (p. 1162).
This longitudinal study used self-report, observer-report, and objective data. Students were assessed at two points in time over an almost two-year span. At each assessment they completed measures of hope, self-esteem, attributional style, and verbal and numeric ability (aptitude tests). For the second assessment, teacher ratings of students and end-of-year grades were also included.
Even though self-esteem has been strongly hyped as an important precursor of academic achievement, in this study it was not related to student grades or teacher ratings.
When comparing the three positive thinking variables, after controlling for gender, verbal and numeric ability, hope was the only significant predictor of final grades. “Hope had a more reliable effect on total school grades as well as individual subjects (English, Religious Studies, Math, Science, and Design) than positive attributional style and self-esteem” (p. 1173). Even though prior research has connected self-esteem to grades, it was not significantly related to outcomes.
Hope also appeared to be a consistent trait from Time 1 to Time 2 and even predicted better behavioral ratings from teachers. Hope had a distinct factor structure from self-esteem and attributional style, indicating that it is a unique construct.
In summarizing their findings, the authors noted: “positive traits like hope, self-esteem, and positive attributional style play out in quite different ways in the lives of teenagers. Although they can be regarded as protective factors, their effects on achievement and psychological well-being are clearly quite different and their capacities to build resilience in young people are also distinctive” (p. 1175).
How can these results help other students? “People high in trait-hope appear to be better at achieving their goals” and “these effects may be cumulative and compounded” (p. 1175). A snowball effect, either in positive academic outcomes or negative ones, may occur as a function of hopefulness. Therefore, efforts to cultivate hope in children may pay dividends in each child’s academic future.
Citation: Ciarrochi, J., Heaven, P. C., & Davies, F. (2007). The impact of hope, self-esteem, and attributional style on adolescents’ school grades and emotional well-being: A longitudinal study. Journal of Research in Personality, 41(6), 1161-1178.
©Jennie Dilworth, Ph.D