Psychologists and educators have become interested in the development of a child's social and emotional abilities as well as cognitive outcomes. To determine the important coping patterns that predict success in school, a sample of 10- and 14-year old children (N=3600) from the U.S.A., Brazil, Italy, and Mexico completed a multi-lingual battery of coping and motivational measures. Results indicated the importance of coping and motivation factors in predicting school success, even after cognitive factors were considered. The findings indicate that coping well with the social world is an important predictor of children's mastery of intellectual endeavors. (Author/KMF)