Self-Regulated Strategies for School Writing Tasks: A Cross-Cultural Report

Abstract

We investigated cross-cultural differences in ninth-grade students' reported use of self-regulated strategies for writing. We assessed 12 self-regulated strategies for writing tapping environmental, behavioural, and personal self-regulated processes. Seven hundred and thirty-two Portuguese and Brazilian students in transition to high school (Mage= 14.3; 372 male and 306 female) from mainstream urban schools reported on their use of the strategies. Statistical analyses included a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) with 12 dependent variables (self-regulated strategies for writing) and 2 between-subjects variables (country and gender). There were significant main effects for country with medium effect sizes and statistically significant small effect sizes for gender main effects. All-male and all-female comparisons indicated significant differences and medium effect sizes within gender groups. The majority of the differences tapped personal self-regulated strategies. Taken together, these findings suggest that initiating and controlling writing may be a contextualised bounded process.