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Motivation and Mathematics Achievement: A Comparative Study of Asian‐American, Caucasian‐American, and East Asian High School Students
Author(s) -
Chen Chuansheng,
Stevenson Harold W.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8624.1995.tb00932.x
Subject(s) - asian americans , psychology , east asia , chinese americans , academic achievement , curriculum , asian culture , eleventh , mathematics education , developmental psychology , ethnic group , pedagogy , china , ethnology , physics , sociology , anthropology , acoustics , history , political science , law
This study examined the motivation and mathematics achievement of Asian‐American, Caucasian‐American, and East Asian students. Subjects were 304 Asian‐American, 1,958 Caucasian‐American, 1,475 Chinese (Taiwan), and 1,120 Japanese eleventh graders (mean age = 17.6 years). Students were given a curriculum‐based mathematics test and a questionnaire. Mathematics scores of the Asian‐American students were higher than those of Caucasian‐American students but lower than those of Chinese and Japanese students. Factors associated with the achievement of Asian‐American and East Asian students included having parents and peers who hold high standards, believing that the road to success is through effort, having positive attitudes about achievement, studying diligently, and facing less interference with their schoolwork from jobs and informal peer interactions. Contrary to the popular belief that Asian‐American students' high achievement necessarily takes a psychological toll, they were found not to report a greater frequency of maladjustive symptoms than Caucasian‐American students.