Dr. Katja Upadyaya joined PATHWAYS in May 2009. Her research interests are parent-child and teacher-student interaction, and particularly how these relationships influence childrens and students learning and motivation at school. Katja wrote her Phd thesis in 2007 at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland concerning parents causal attributions and children’s academic achievement. Following this her research focuses on teachers beliefs and their association with children’s academic skills and motivation. Currently she is working as a visiting post doc researcher at the Research Center for Group Dynamics (RCGD), University of Michigan, and continuing to do research on teacher-student interaction in the Childhood and Beyond (CAB) study.

Recently Katja has been also doing research related to the development of motivation and self-concept of adolescents (MSALT Study ) and school engagement and its possible antecedents and consequences (FinEdu Study). 

In August 2011 Katja received the Jacobs Foundation fellowship award from excellent young researcher.

Publications

Natale, K., Viljaranta, J., Nurmi, J.-E., Lerkkanen, M.-K., & Poikkeus, A.-M. (2009). Cross-lagged associations between kindergarten teachers’ causal attributions and children’s task motivation and performance in reading. Educational Psychology, 29, 603-619.

Upadyaya, K., Viljaranta, J., Nurmi, J.-E., Lerkkanen, M.-K., & Poikkeus, A.-M. (in press). Cross-lagged relations between preschool teachers’ causal attributions and children’s interest value and performance in math. Social Psychology of Education: An International Journal.

Salmela-Aro, K. & Upadyaya, K. (in press). School engagement inventory: Reliability and validity. European Journal of Psychological Assessment.