Measuring self-perceived role competence among first nations and non native children

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Cross-Cultural Psychology
• Educational Psychology

Background:

• Assessing self-perceived competence in children is crucial for understanding academic and social development.
• Existing measures may not adequately capture the experiences of diverse cultural groups, such as First Nations children.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate the "Flower of Two Soils" scales for measuring self-perceived academic and social competence.
• To compare these measures between First Nations and non-native children across different cultural contexts in North America.

Main Methods:

• Psychometric analysis of scales derived from questionnaires administered to First Nations and non-native children.
• Evaluation of reliability, internal consistency, and agreement between self- and teacher-ratings.
• Age-based comparisons of competence scores between groups.

Main Results:

• The "Flower of Two Soils" scales demonstrated satisfactory reliability and internal consistency, increasing with age.
• Agreement between self- and teacher-ratings was higher for non-native children than for First Nations children.
• While competence scores were equal in second grade, native children's scores declined or stagnated, whereas non-native children's scores increased with age.

Conclusions:

• The "Flower of Two Soils" scales are suitable for assessing competence in elementary First Nations and majority culture children.
• Asynchronous socialization may negatively impact self-perceived competence in First Nations children as they mature.
• Self-perceived competence becomes a more stable self-concept component with age, highlighting potential developmental disparities.