What characterizes a learned helplessness orientation? How can it affects children?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Some children adopt a learned helplessness orientation, characterized by a fixed mindset and the attribution of poor performance to internal factors. Children who show learned helplessness are overwhelmed by challenges, overly self-critical, feel incompetent, and avoid challenging tasks. A learned helplessness orientation can perpetuate poor performance. For example, students in fourth through sixth grades who were self-critical viewed their abilities as fixed, rated their own competence as lower, knew less about study strategies, avoided challenges, and performed more poorly at school than their non-self-critical peers. Poor performance, in turn, can confirm children's negative views of their ability and their sense of helplessness.