CONTEMPORARY EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 7, 97- 106 (1982) Cooperative- Competitive Social Orientation and School Achievement among Anglo-American and Mexican-American Children GEORGE P. KNIGHT The University of Arizona AND WILLIAM NELSON,~PENCER KAGAN,AND JANN GUMBINER University of California, Riverside Researchers have suggested that the relatively poor academic performance of Mexican-American compared to Anglo-American children may result from cul- tural differences in cooperative-competitive social orientation. To test the relative contribution of cooperative-competitive social orientation as a personality pre- dictor of school achievement, the cooperativeness-competitiveness, field inde- pendence, locus of control, self-esteem, and school achievement of 45 Anglo-American and 125 Mexican-American fourth, fifth, and sixth grade chil- dren were assessed. The results indicate (1) competitiveness is positively related to school achievement among the Anglo-American children but not the Mexican- American children; (2) among the Anglo-American children competitiveness is a better predictor of school achievement than field independence, locus of control, and self-esteem; (3) the personality variables are moderately but not independently related to school achievement within both cultural groups; and (4) the between- culture variance in the personality variables does not account for the between- culture variance in school achievement. Implications of the present results for understanding within- and between-group differences in school achievement are discussed. Mexican-American children have been found to achieve less in school, learn less per grade, and complete fewer years of school than Anglo-American children (Carter & Segura, 1979). McClintock (1974) has suggested that Mexican-American children, who are relatively more cooperative and less competitive compared to Anglo-American children (cf Kagan, 1977), may be ontogenetically out of phase with the American educational system which shapes and uses competitive motives to pro- mote and reward academic achievement. If Mexican-American children are indeed at a disadvantage in United States schools because of their Reprint requests may be sent to George P. Knight. Department of Psychology, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721. This research was partially supported by a Uni- versity of California Intramural research grant, No. 5-538404-19900-5. 97 0361-476X/82/020097-10$02.00/0 Copyright 0 1982 by Academic Press, Inc. All righls of reproduction in any form reserved