The influence of problem ownership on teachers' perceptions of and strategies for coping with problem students

98 elementary school teachers read vignettes depicting incidents involving (fictional) students who presented chronic behavior problems and then told how they would respond if the incidents occurred in their classrooms. Responses were coded for attributions about the students and about the Ss' roles in causing and correcting the problems. Ss attributed controllability and intentionality to students presenting teacher-owned problems but not to students presenting student-owned problems. Students presenting shared problems often were seen as able to control their behavior but not as misbehaving intentionally. The contrasting patterns of attribution seen in these 3 levels of problem ownership were associated with contrasting patterns of goals and strategies, as well. The data bear out expectations based on attributional analyses of helping behavior but raise questions about teachers' preparedness to cope with problem students. (24 ref)