High School Math and Motivation for autistic students.
Michael Cooper, George Farkas
PMID 35441916WHAT IT FOUND
For autistic high schoolers, math grades were predicted by how much they saw themselves as a "math person," not by their 9th grade test scores.
This identity link held for higher-performing students, but the small sample means these findings are preliminary and not yet actionable for clinical practice.
Key findings
01In predicting final high school math GPA, math identity was the strongest predictor for autistic students with above average test scores.
02For autistic students, whether below or above average in their math test scores, when motivation variables were controlled, test scores were not significantly related to GPA.
03The sample size of 170 autistic students provided approximately 0.8 power, meaning the analysis may be underpowered to detect small effects.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
The sample size of autistic students was small (n=170), resulting in low statistical power to detect subtle effects. Autism status was determined by parent report of a prior diagnosis, which may lack precision regarding current functioning or diagnostic criteria. The study is observational and cannot establish causation; it describes associations between motivation and grades. Motivation measures were taken at the start of 9th grade, potentially missing changes in motivation during high school.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the strong link between math identity and GPA as proof that changing a student's self-view will improve their grades. This is an observational study of existing data, not an intervention trial, and the small sample size means these associations are tentative.