Attributions for success held by gifted Black males

The current study examined the attributions for successful outcomes held by gifted Black males. The sample consisted of 189 Black males in programs for the gifted and talented in 10 high schools across two large urban school districts in the southwestern United States. Subjects were classified as either at-risk (66) or not at-risk (123) based on their eligibility for free or reduced school lunches. Subjects were also categorized as achievers (119) or underachievers (70) based on teacher ratings of their achievement. Hence, the sample consisted of four groups: 40 achievers, at-risk; 79 achievers not at-risk; 26 underachievers, at-risk; and 44 underachievers not at-risk.; In order to examine internal and external attributions for successful school outcomes, subjects completed modified versions the Sydney Attribution Scale (SAS) and the Multidimensional-Multiattributional Causality Scale (MMCS). It was hypothesized that (1) gifted Black male achievers would perceive the reasons for their academic successes as being more internal than gifted Black male underachievers, and (2) gifted Black male at-risk students would perceive reasons for their success as being more external than their gifted Black male peers who are not at-risk. It was also hypothesized that there would be an interaction among the at-risk and achievement variables, in that, gifted Black males who are achievers and not at-risk would attribute their academic success to their ability and effort (internal) instead of external factors (e.g. luck, help, and task difficulty) when compared to the other groups. Likewise, it was hypothesized that underachieving gifted Black males who were at-risk would have more external attributions for success than the other groups.; Three 2 (Achieving, Underachieving) x 2 (At-risk, Not at-risk) multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVA) were performed on participants' ratings of locus of causality on the individual instruments as well as the two instruments combined. The three omnibus MANOVA's were not significant; however, unvariate tests were performed indicating a significant main effect of the achievement variable on the attribution of ability on the SAS subscale. The results indicate that gifted achievers had statistically significantly higher mean ratings for ability on the SAS than were the means for gifted underachievers.