When a child fails in an academic task, there are two typical responses that studies have shown. A child may assume she will succeed in future tasks, or conversely, that failure will recur frequently. This later response easily leads to learned helplessness, in which a child simply stops trying.

Based on past theory and research, psychologists Joan Girgus, of Princeton University, Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, of University of Michigan, and Martin Seligman, of University of Pennsylvania, conducted a longitudinal study that has shown that learned helplessness observed in the spring of one year leads to declines in academic achievement one year later. Although learned helplessness has been shown to affect problem solving in laboratory settings, this new study, “How Do Learned Helplessness and Depression Affect Academic Achievement,” is critical as it reports consistent data over six years, from measures completed by students and teachers each spring. “These findings lead us to ask what it is about learned helplessness that leads to poorer academic performance over time,” notes Girgus. “Do students initiate fewer problem-solving behaviors? Are their problem-solving behaviors less effective? Do they give up more easily?”

The study was conducted in two districts near Princeton, New Jersey, with 160 children providing data every year between grades 3 and 8. The study relied on teachers’ input on a student behavior checklist. To determine depressive symptoms, researchers tested children each spring using the Children’s Depression Inventory. The academic achievement measures were scores on a standardized test administered by the school and a separate test administered by researchers at a separate time. “The data from this study persuade us,” Girgus observes, “that direct intervention to provide mastery-oriented strategies should be implemented for children who are behaving in a helpless way in the classroom, and that these interventions should be instituted as early in a child’s schooling as possible.”

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