Children with high expectations of control do better in school than their peers with
low perceived control. This finding is based largely on cross-sectional research and
longitudinal research with long time intervals. Little attention has been paid to
short-term, within-child variability in this important construct. Information about
intraindividual change in perceived control, behaviour, and performance is critical
to determining the processes by which the link between perception and outcome is
affected. In this study, short-term variability in children’s perceived
control, perception of task demands, and school performance was assessed and the
concurrent and lagged relationships among these variables were considered.
High-achieving and low-achieving children were compared. Results of dynamic factor
models suggested that both the concurrent and lagged relationships among these
variables are stronger and better organised for the high-achieving children.
Implications for perceived control theory are discussed.
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