Academic self-concept change in junior high school students and relationships with academic achievement

Studies and models of academic self-concept (ASC) have mostly relied on its stability over time, but recent research advancements on individual differences have shown that the majority of psychological constructs tend to change over time. Drawing on literature regarding personality trait change and the RI/EM, we conducted a study aimed at investigating characteristics of the changeability of math and verbal self-concepts across junior high school, and examined their relationships with academic performance. The sample consisted of 1674 students, who filled in a self-report questionnaire on math and verbal self-concept at T1 (10 yrs) and T2 (13 yrs), whereas math and verbal achievement at T1 and T2 were measured by standardized test scores. Results attested (a) that both math and verbal self-concept, on average, decrease significantly over the course of junior high school; (b) that a large variability exists in the way students change; (c) that the way students change in one academic self-concept is not related to changes in the other academic self-concept. In regards to academic achievement, we found reciprocal positive longitudinal effects in matching domains and low-positive or non-significant longitudinal relationships in non-matching domains. In sum, the ability to contrast the overall negative trend of ASCs is associated with amelioration in academic achievement at the end of junior high school. From a practical standpoint, these findings suggest the importance of (a) assessing and intervening on ASCs during junior high school; (b) intervening in math and verbal self-concept separately; (c) taking into account the student’s own way of changing.