Relationship Between Students’ Social Status and Global and Domain-Specific Self-Concepts

Abstract

Global and domain-specific self-concept differences among 815 children and adolescents of popular, rejected, neglected, controversial, average, and “unclassified” social status were examined. Social status was derived using the Coie, Dodge, and Coppotelli (1982) sociometric procedure and self-concept assessment was conducted with the Multidimensional Self Concept Scale (MSCS). Findings supported the hypothesis that students in the extreme status groups (i.e., popular and rejected children) would differ in self-concept; however, fewer consistent differences emerged between students who were identified as neglected, controversial, average, or unclassified in social status. Domain-specific subscales of the MSCS, especially social, proved to be more effective than the Total Scale Score in differentiating the various social status groups. Physical and academic self-concepts also contributed meaningfully to the differentiation of individual pairs of social status groups, and emphasizes the importance of considering context-dependent subdomains in the analysis of students’ self-concept.