Causal attributions in Early Childhood Education: A new categorization system

From Early Childhood Education onwards, causal attributions influence explanations of school performance. We performed a systematic review of the available knowledge (1970-2019) about Weiner's (1986) Attribution Theory of the Motivation of Achievement in order to examine studies related to the causal attributions of success and failure at school. We found numerous empirical studies related to Bernard Weiner's theory. However, little research exists about students in Early Childhood Education. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify the causes to which children attribute their successes and failures during this educational period.

A sample of 200 students aged between 3 and 6 years old was selected. To collect the data, an individually implemented Piagetian clinical interview was used.

A large volume of qualitative information was collected for classification which exceeded Weiner's traditional causal attributions. Creating a category to group all new attributions implied losing too much information under a non-specific label.

A new categorization of the causal attributions was designed, made up of 10 categories -adapted to the 3-6 years age range- which revises and expanding on the categorization created by Weiner.