Academic achievement as a function of specific and global measures of self-concept

This study examined the correlations between academic achievement and factor specific, as well as global, measures of self-concept for 314 fourth and sixth grade boys and girls divided into grade level groups with and without Spanish surnames. The Primary Self-Concept Inventory was used to measure self-concept on six scales: physical size, emotional state, peer acceptance, helpfulness, success, and student-self. A global self-concept score was derived by totaling the scores on the six scales. Achievement was measured as total score on the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills. The two specific measures of self-concept that were most reflective of school performance, success and student-self, tended to show low positive correlations with achievement. The remaining specific measures, as well as the global measure, tended to show no relationship to achievement. These results suggest that an area specific model of self-concept is more useful than a global or undifferentiated model. Further, the low correlations between school related self-concept and achievement suggest that, as a group, students frequently have rather inaccurate academic self-concepts.