Self-downing beliefs, coping strategies and math performance: a Rational Emotive Education approach

Rational Emotive Behavior Theory has repeatedly stressed that children’s irrational beliefs have a negative impact on their academic success. Hence, the
current study sought to explore the relationship between students’ self-downing beliefs and their academic math performance. Secondly, a possible mediation
and/or interaction was examined between coping strategies and self-downing beliefs for the prediction of academic math performance. Thirdly possible gender differences were explored between the relationships of the aforementioned variables. One hundred sixteen adolescent students completed self-report questionnaires, assessing their selfdowning beliefs and coping strategies. Students’ scores of mathematical tests were gathered from school records. A curvilinear regression analysis showed that students’ self-downing beliefs significantly predict their academic math performance through a curvilinear relationship. A stepwise multiple regression analysis also showed that self-downing is the most significant predictor of academic math performance, while the addition of avoidance coping on top of self-downing, was marginally significant for the prediction of academic math performance. Furthermore, the inclusion of interaction terms into the stepwise multiple regression indicated non-significant interaction effects between positive approach coping and self-downing beliefs and between avoidance coping and self-downing beliefs, for the prediction of academic math performance. Last but not least non-significant gender differences were found between the variables of the study, with the exemption of avoidance coping, in ‘favor’ of boys. Overall, the results are in line with the REBT theory that students’ irrational beliefs may substantially contribute to their academic achievement.