members of lower class minority communities (especially those with distinctive
skin color like Blacks and many Hispanics) often feel that their social mobility
may be blocked primarily by factors beyond their control. If the minority group
is politically powerless and economically disadvantaged, learned helplessness (a
low sense of personal control over one's destiny, low expectations for success,
maladaptive causal attributions for success and failures) among the children can
further limit school achievement (see Brody, 1968; Dweck, 1975; Harari and
Covington, 1981; Louden, 1978; Nicholls, 1979).