Subject-specific Self-concepts Research Articles

The formation of subject-specific values as a two-step process: Self-concepts mediate the relation between achievement and values

Within the framework of a generalized internal/external frame of reference model, influences of social and dimensional comparisons of academic achievement on the formation of subject-specific values (or related constructs) are empirically well documented for secondary school students. Furthermore, a wide range of theories also hypothesize an effect of subject-specific self-concepts on values. Accordingly, prior studies suggested a mediating effect of self-concepts on the achievement–value relationship. However, these studies have been limited to two school subjects or exclusively math and science subjects. Based on data from N = 1,339 ninth- through twelfth-grade students, we extended prior research by relating students’ grades in mathematics, physics, social studies, German, English, and the second foreign language to value scores in these subjects; subject-specific self-concepts were included as mediators. Our results support the hypothesis of a full mediation of the relationship between grades and values through self-concepts. Additional analyses showed a comparable fit between a mediation model with direct paths from grades to values and a mediation model without these direct paths. We discuss which subject-specific self-concepts are the most important mediators for the achievement–value relationship and the importance of self-concepts for forming values above grades.

Subject-specific interests and subject-specific self-concepts

Abstract. Academic interest and academic self-concept are important correlated motivational variables. Their common factorial structure and their shared (confounded) and non-shared (unique) power for predicting subject-tied academic achievement has not yet been satisfactorily investigated. This study investigated 588 Chinese adolescents. Two subject-tied interests and the corresponding subject-tied self-concepts were measured. The associated school marks were collected. The major subject German (first foreign language) was chosen to represent the verbal oriented school subjects, the major subject Maths was chosen to represent the numerical oriented ones. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) evidenced two motivational factors (academic interest and academic self-concept) within each school subject and two subject factors (German and Maths) within each motivational construct. Joined CFAs (which included all interest as well as all self-concept items) revealed four factors (interest German, interest Maths, self-concept German, self-concept Maths). Accordingly, four motivational scales were formed. Each scale consisted of five items. The scales had high reliabilities and displayed good convergent-divergent validities. Both motivational scales together accounted for 41.0% (German) and 22.3% (Maths) of the total achievement variance. Of these, the common (fused) shares were 19.8% (German) and 12.4% (Maths). The proportions of the total achievement variance that could be explained exclusively by only one of the two motivational variables amounted to 0.3% (interest) and 20.9% (self-concept) for German. Theses figures were 0.1% (interest) and 9.8% (self-concept) for Maths. The discussion underscores that subject-specific academic interest and subject-specific academic selfconcept, while highly correlated, should still be considered distinct constructs. A subject-tied self-concept remains an important predictor of academic achievement even after controlling for the assigned interest. The situation is different in the case of subject-tied interest. Its predictive power for academic achievement collapses after controlling for the associated selfconcept.

Moderators of dimensional comparison effects: A comprehensive replication study putting prior findings on five moderators to the test and going beyond.

Dimensional comparisons, where students compare their achievements in different subjects, have a significant impact on the formation of students’ subject-specific self-concepts. This research examines the influence of five moderators that have been shown in previous research to affect the strength of dimensional comparison effects: (1) the intraindividual difference between students’ math and verbal achievements, (2) the absolute level of students’ math and verbal achievements, (3) students’ belief in the negative interdependence of math and verbal abilities, (4) students’ perception of the dissimilarity of math and verbal subjects, and (5) students’ perceptions of their math and verbal subject teachers’ diagnostic competence. We examined the effects of all moderators within a sample of 1,424 students in Germany by conducting latent moderated structural equation modeling within the framework of the internal/external frame of reference model. Only two moderators showed significant influences on the strength of the dimensional comparison effects: The dimensional comparison effects on students’ math and German self-concepts were stronger, the more students believed in the negative interdependence of math and verbal abilities, and the more dissimilar they perceived the subjects math and German to be. These moderating effects also persisted if we integrated both moderators into one model simultaneously. Our findings have important implications for self-concept research and dimensional comparison theory, as well as for educational interventions aiming to foster and regulate students’ self-concepts. Moreover, they illustrate the importance of replication studies in educational psychology. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)

Cognitive and Affective Components of Verbal Self-Concepts and Internal/External Frame of Reference Within the Multidimensional Verbal Domain

Most researchers have studied students’ academic self-concept within native language and mathematics, indicating the multidimensional nature of academic self-concept. However, there is a shortage of studies that examined the twofold multidimensional structure of verbal self-concept within the internal/external frame of reference (I/E) model of two foreign languages. This study aims to examine affective and cognitive components of English and Russian self-concepts for defining the separation or conflation of these components within the I/E model and evaluate cognitive and affective components across gender. A total of 540 eighth-grade Azeri students participated in this study. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated self-concept structure as twofold multidimensional, distinguishing affective and cognitive components as two different constructs. Study of the I/E model of two language self-concepts showed that Russian achievement correlated with Russian cognitive self-concept and English cognitive self-concept related to English achievement. One general verbal self-concept for different languages may not adequately represent multilingual learners and can produce misleading interpretations. The relationship between the two dimensions of self-concept in two target languages was invariant. The results of this study should encourage researchers to examine subject-specific self-concepts that conceptualize cognitive and affective dimensions of the self-concept and their relationships with achievement.

Science Self-Concept – More than the Sum of Its Parts?

Academic self-concept is understood as a multidimensional, hierarchical construct. Multidimensionality refers to the subject-specific differentiation of academic self-concepts, whereas hierarchy refers to the aggregation of more specific facets of self-concepts into more general ones. Previous research demonstrated that students distinguish between their self-concepts in biology, chemistry, and physics, if taught as separate school subjects, as is done in Germany. However, large-scale international educational studies, such as PISA, often use a monolithic science self-concept measure. It is yet unclear whether an aggregate of subject-specific self-concepts is equivalent to a directly measured science self-concept. We assessed the subject-specific and a global science self-concept of 1,229 German grade 10 students. A higher-order factor model and a bifactor model demonstrated a very high correlation between the “inferred” and the explicitly assessed global science self-concept. Despite the high empirical overlap, we argue for a more nuanced view of the science self-concept, because statistical unity is not to be confused with causal unity. Moreover, from a methodological perspective, we used multi-group confirmatory factor analysis to examine the mean structure and local structural equation models to study measurement invariance across science ability. Implications for the theoretical status of self-concept as a hierarchical construct are discussed.

The Structure of Academic Self-Concept When Facing Novel Learning Content: Multidimensionality, Hierarchy, and Change

Academic self-concepts of ability are key factors in promoting education and learning throughout students’ school career. Yet we know little about their structure and structural change when students leave high school to face novel academic tasks. The present study investigated the structure and structural change of first-year students’ study-related self-concepts of ability. Data stems from a longitudinal study with two measurement points covering the initial study phase (t1: N = 341; age: M = 21.6; SD = 3.56; 57.5% female). Self-concepts were assessed regarding the participants’ study program and four of its subordinate subjects. Confirmatory factor analyses and structural equation models were used to compare structural models and to investigate structural stability and directional effects. Results support the assumption of multidimensionality (i.e., distinct self-concepts for different subjects) and hierarchy with a generic field-of-study-specific self-concept at the apex. Specifying generic field-of-study-specific self-concept as a method factor (i.e., indicated by both subject-specific and field-of-study-specific items) was most consistent with theoretical assumptions. The structural model was invariant over the first months at university. Generic field-of-study-specific self-concept and subject-specific self-concepts largely developed independently from one another. The results emphasize the recently suggested conceptualization of generic self-concept as a method factor to reflect self-concept hierarchy. Self-concepts were structurally stable over time. Several significant horizontal effects (i.e., stability within subjects) suggest that students align their self-concepts closely to the curriculum they encounter in educational contexts and, therefore, may benefit from ample feedback on their performance to develop appropriate subject-specific self-concepts.

Integrating the 2I/E model into dimensional comparison theory: Towards a comprehensive comparison theory of academic self-concept formation

The 2I/E model describes academic self-concept formation by the joint operation of social, temporal, and dimensional comparisons. Dimensional comparison theory assumes that dimensional contrast effects are weaker between similar subjects than between dissimilar subjects. This research combined these two perspectives in two empirical studies: For the first time, we integrated four subjects (math, science/physics, English, German) into one generalized 2I/E model and compared dimensional comparison effects between dissimilar and similar subjects, while controlling for social and temporal comparison effects. In line with the 2I/E model, we found strong social, small temporal, and small to moderate dimensional comparison effects on students' subject-specific self-concepts. In line with dimensional comparison theory, the dimensional contrast effects were substantially weaker, and sometimes even assimilative, between similar compared to dissimilar subjects. We discuss these findings with respect to the integration of the 2I/E model into dimensional comparison theory and possibilities for teachers to foster students’ self-concepts.

Effects of achievement differences for internal/external frame of reference model investigations: A test of robustness of findings over diverse student samples.

Achievement in math and achievement in verbal school subjects are more strongly correlated than the respective academic self-concepts. The internal/external frame of reference model (I/E model; Marsh, 1986, Am. Educ. Res. J., 23, 129) explains this finding by social and dimensional comparison processes. We investigated a key assumption of the model that dimensional comparisons mainly depend on the difference in achievement between subjects. We compared correlations between subject-specific self-concepts of groups of elementary and secondary school students with or without achievement differences in the respective subjects. The main goals were (1) to show that effects of dimensional comparisons depend to a large degree on the existence of achievement differences between subjects, (2) to demonstrate the generalizability of findings over different grade levels and self-concept scales, and (3) to test a rarely used correlation comparison approach (CCA) for the investigation of I/E model assumptions. We analysed eight German elementary and secondary school student samples (grades 3-8) from three independent studies (Ns 326-878). Correlations between math and German self-concepts of students with identical grades in the respective subjects were compared with the correlation of self-concepts of students having different grades using Fisher's Z test for independent samples. In all samples, correlations between math self-concept and German self-concept were higher for students having identical grades than for students having different grades. Differences in median correlations had small effect sizes for elementary school students and moderate effect sizes for secondary school students. Findings generalized over grades and indicated a developmental aspect in self-concept formation. The CCA complements investigations within I/E-research.

Measurement Invariance in a Grid-Based Measure of Academic Self-Concept

Abstract. Grid-based measures, where item stems are rated across diverse domains or subjects, represent an economic measure to assess multifaceted constructs such as academic self-concept. Although testing for measurement invariance between groups (e.g., based on gender or age) and within subjects over time (e.g., in longitudinal research) is common practice, research on invariance across domains is still lacking. We examine measurement invariance across selected self-concept domains in the Differentiated School Self-Concept (DISC) Grid as an example of grid-based self-concept measures. Using a highly diverse student sample, we assessed invariance of the DISC grid across three academic domains (German, English, and mathematics). Based on adequate model fit within each domain, the DISC grid proved to be strictly invariant across the three subject-specific self-concepts (German, English, and mathematics). Implications for theory (e.g., Möller and Marsh’s Dimensional Comparison Theory), empirical research (e.g., on the Internal/External Frame of Reference model), assessment (e.g., regarding other measures using similarly worded items across domains, such as the Self-Description Questionnaires [SDQ]), and practice (e.g., academic counseling) are discussed.

Self-perception and Academic Achievement

Objectives: The purpose of this paper is to discuss the theoretical and practical implication of academic selfperception and various other school related variables in the field of educational psychology research. Methods/ Statistical Analysis: The literature review was done keeping in view the different perspectives of recommendations made in the field of self-perception and academic achievement. The search attempts to understand various research studies against self-perception and academic achievement. Findings: The literature review process delivers a detailed discussion on a set of subject matter specific self-concepts. This self-perception explains how better the students perform in their various school subjects offered to them like mathematics, science, language arts, social studies etc. It also explores whether self-perception is one-dimensional or multidimensional. The gap analysis conducted during literature review focuses on the need to study the subject-specific academic self-perception and its association with to academic performance. Application/Improvements: Self-awareness is a basic human condition. Self-perception emerges in the early period of life and the significant others set the platform for it. Many studies show that academic self-perception is related to wide variety of school-related variables. The related variables are found to be subject specific school achievement, perceived social status among peers, participation in the class room dialogue, perception of peers and teachers, classroom behavior.

How do I know what I can do? Anticipating expectancy of success regarding novel academic tasks.

After graduation from secondary school, academic tasks (i.e., learning contents) are no longer structured in terms of school subjects (i.e., English, mathematics). Therefore, learners lack past performance and mastery experience to inform their expectancy of success (i.e., ability beliefs) regarding novel tasks. In this paper, we investigate how individuals establish expectancy of success regarding novel academic tasks. We hypothesize that individuals draw on ability beliefs regarding known tasks that are deemed similar to novel tasks to estimate expectancy of success (generalization hypothesis). Participants were first-year students (n = 354) in the field of business administration (Study 1), and (Study 2) psychology students predominantly (n = 174). In Study 1, we analysed relations between ability beliefs (i.e., academic self-concepts of ability) regarding four school subjects and four fields of study varying in similarity. In Study 2, we assessed mastery experience regarding two school subjects and expectancy of success (i.e., self-efficacy) regarding a fictitious course manipulating participants' similarity judgement. We analysed the data using mainly structural equation modelling. Results support the generalization hypothesis regarding both indicators of expectancy of success (i.e., self-concept and self-efficacy). Subject-specific self-concepts of ability predict study-related self-concepts of ability according to individuals' similarity judgements. Subject-specific mastery experience predicts expectancy of success only if the respective school subject is emphasized in the course description. Individuals apparently draw on established ability beliefs regarding known tasks to inform their expectancy of success regarding novel tasks. Findings further our understanding of the development of motivation to learn in adulthood.

On the benefit of dimensional comparisons.

People not only use social comparisons to evaluate their abilities, they also engage in dimensional comparisons, comparing their own achievement in different domains. Processes of dimensional comparison have contrasting effects on subject-specific self-concepts: downward dimensional comparisons result in higher self-concept in the intraindividually better domain, whereas upward dimensional comparisons result in lower self-concept in the intraindividually weaker domain. Two field studies and I experimental study were conducted to investigate whether the effects of downward or upward dimensional comparisons are stronger. In Study I (N = 319), downward dimensional comparisons proved to be stronger than upward dimensional comparisons. In Study 2 (N = 1349), the same pattern was found with reading test scores as well as grades as achievement indicators. In Study 3 (N = 81), the authors found larger effects for downward than for upward comparisons in both self-perceived competence and satisfaction with test outcomes in an experimental setting.

The Multidimensional, Hierarchical Model of Academic Self-Concept: The Case of Greek Secondary School Pupils

Research has shown that Self-Concept is a multidimensional construct, hierarchically organised. It has been suggested that studies examining the relationship of Self-Concept with School-Achievement should employ measurements of the Academic rather than of the General Self-Concept. The Academic Self-Concept has also been shown to be a multidimensional (consisting of the dimensions of general School-Ability SelfConcept and several subject-specific Self-Concepts) and hierarchically organised (in terms of generality/specificity of the content dimensions) construct.In a study of Greek 8th grade pupils, the Multifaceted, Hierarchical Model of Academic Self-Concept was supported via successive Factor Analyses, but the hierarchical organisation was shown to differ from those obtained for pupils in other countries.