Citation

Määttä S, Stattin H, Nurmi JE. Scand. J. Psychol. 2006; 47(4): 273-280.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, University of Jyväskylä, Finland. sami.maatta@psyka.jyu.fi

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, Scandinavian Psychological Associations, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1467-9450.2006.00517.x

PMID

16869860

Abstract

The present study examined the extent to which the achievement strategies deployed by adolescents, and those used by their peers would predict adolescents' school adjustment, academic achievement and problem behavior. The participants were 287 14-15-year-old comprehensive school students (121 boys and 165 girls) from a middle-sized town in central Sweden. The results showed that not only the maladaptive strategies used by adolescents, but also those reported by their peers predicted adolescents' norm-breaking behavior, low school adjustment and low level of achievement: high levels of failure expectations and task-avoidance among adolescents' peers were positively associated with adolescents' own norm-breaking behavior, and indirectly via this, also with their maladjustment at school and low grades. These associations were found after controlling for the impact of adolescents' own achievement strategies.

Language: en