Self-Concept and Academic Achievement: Investigating Their Importance as Discriminators of Academic Track Membership in High School
Keywords:
Academic achievement, Secondary education, Discriminant analysisAbstract
Several factors—general self-concept (SC), academic SC, or academic achievement (AA; academic grades)—may discriminate between low- and high-track students. Using linear discriminant function analysis, two independent samples of high school students (N=929; N=968) were tested on identical measures of these constructs. Although academic SC and AA both discriminated moderately between tracks, academic SC was the more effective discriminator. Further, low and high tracks could not be distinguished on the basis of general SC. We should distinguish between general SC and academic SC in the measurement of adolescent SC.
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