Peer-Model Attributes and Children's Achievement Behaviors

In two experiments, we investigated how attributed of peer models influenced achievement behaviors among children who had experienced difficulties learning mathematical skills in school. In Experiment 1, children (M = 10.6 years) observed either a same- or opposite-sex peer model demonstrating rapid (mastery model) or gradual (coping model) acquisition of fraction skills. Observing a coping model led to higher self-efficacy, skill, and training performance. In Experiment 2, children (M = 10.9 years) observed either one or three same-sex peer models demonstrating mastery or coping behaviors while solving fractions. Children in the single-coping model, multiple-coping-model, and multiple-mastery-model conditions demonstrated higher self-efficacy, skill, and training performance, compared with subjects who observed a single mastery model. In both studies, children who observed coping models judged themselves more similar in competence to the models than did subjects who observed mastery models.