Self-Concepts, Self-Esteem, and Academic Achievement of Minority and Majority North American Elementary School Children

Am I a good person? Academic correlates of explicit and implicit self-esteem during early childhood

Implicit and explicit self-esteem are not commonly measured in the same children. Using a cross-sectional design, data from 354 Croatian children (184 girls) in Grade 1 (Mage = 7.55 years) and Grade 5 (Mage = 11.58 years) were collected in Spring 2019. All children completed explicit and implicit self-esteem measures; math and language grades were obtained. For the explicit measure, older children showed lower self-esteem than younger children, and girls showed lower self-esteem than boys. For the implicit measure, there were no age effects, and girls showed higher self-esteem than boys. Although both types of self-esteem were positively associated with academic achievement, implicit self-esteem was associated more strongly with language than with math achievement. Discussion is provided about why self-esteem relates to academic achievement during childhood.

HIV-Exposed Uninfected Children: A Systematic Review on Psychological Well-Being and Association with School Performances in Africa

There is a growing number of children affected by HIV in Africa. Research on HIV-exposed uninfected children (HEU) is also growing. This systematic review focuses on the psychological well-being of HEU and its association with school intervention, outcomes, and enrollment in the African context, which is where the rate of HIV reaches its highest levels. Research on public databases was conducted according to PRISMA standards. Only studies on HEU primary school children in Africa, both quantitative and qualitative, were included. Out of 1510 papers retrieved, 50 met the inclusion criteria. These studies demonstrate that HEU children are more likely to perform worse in school compared to their counterparts who were not exposed to HIV and to show poorer concentration in the classroom. Children with parents suffering from AIDS are worried for them and have to take household responsibility, resulting in school dropouts, juvenile work, and risky behaviors. Few interventions have been conducted in the school environment with some of them being successful; therefore, future research should involve schools to create an inclusive environment where HEU children could enhance their potential and improve their psychological health.

The Role of Self-Esteem in the Academic Performance of Rural Students in China

The self-esteem of students may be significantly associated with their academic performance. However, past research in developing contexts on this issue is limited, particularly among early adolescents. Using a sample of 3101 students from rural primary and junior high schools in China, this study measured their self-esteem by the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) and explored its association with academic performance. Our findings indicate that students in rural China had both significantly lower self-esteem and a higher prevalence of low self-esteem when compared to past studies of similarly aged students both from urban China and internationally. Furthermore, there was a strong positive correlation between a student's self-esteem and academic performance. A one-SD increase in RSES score (indicating better self-esteem) was associated with an increase of 0.12 SD in standardized math scores (p < 0.001), and students with low self-esteem (RSES score < 25) scored lower on math tests by 0.14 SD (p < 0.001), which were robust and consistent when employing the propensity score matching method. Our study expands the growing body of empirical evidence on the link between self-esteem and academic performance among rural youth in developing countries and emphasizes the need to improve their self-esteem with the aim of helping them achieve academically.

Cross-Sectional Analysis of Mental Health among University Students: Do Sex and Academic Level Matter?

University students' mental health and well-being is a growing public health concern. There is a lack of studies assessing a broad range of mental health domains by sex and academic level of study. This cross-sectional online survey of BSc, MSc, and PhD students (n = 3353, 67% female) enrolled at one university in Germany assessed a wide scope of mental health domains, covering positive (i.e., self-rated health, self-esteem, student engagement) and negative aspects (i.e., perceived stress, irritation, and screening positive for depression, anxiety, comorbidity, and psychological distress). We evaluated differences in mental health by sex and academic level. Overall, although self-rated health did not differ by sex and academic level, females and lower academic level were associated with less favorable mental health. Males reported higher prevalence of high self-esteem, and higher engagement (all p ≤ 0.04). Conversely, mean perceived stress and cognitive/emotional irritation were higher among females, as were rates for positive screenings for anxiety, anxiety and depression comorbidity, and psychological distress (p < 0.001 for all). Likewise, lower academic level (BSc) was associated with lower rates of high self-esteem (p ≤ 0.001), increased perceived stress (p < 0.001), and higher prevalence of positive screening for depression, anxiety, comorbidity, and psychological distress (p ≤ 0.002 for all), while higher academic level (PhD) was linked to increased student engagement (p < 0.001 for all). Although the effect sizes of sex and academic level on student mental health were modest, these findings support a need for action to establish and expand early detection and prevention programs, on-campus advisory services, and peer counseling that focus on the sex-specific and academic-study-level-specific factors, as well as mental health and career development resources for students. Academics and policy makers need to consider multipronged intervention strategies to boost confidence of students and their academic career.

Adolescents’ implicit attitudes towards people with immigrant background: Differences and correlates

People with an immigrant background can be affected by stereotypes and discrimination. As adolescence is an important developmental stage, this study investigated whether adolescents hold (negative) implicit attitudes towards people with Turkish immigrant background and whether adolescents differ in the extent of attitudes. Additionally, the relevance of perceived discrimination, identification with culture of residence, motivation to act without predjudice, and quality and quantity of contact to people with Turkish immigrant background for the extent of implicit attitudes was analysed. Analyses are based on 244 adolescents (60.7% female, 1.6% diverse; 13.1% with Turkish immigrant background, 16.8% with immigrant background other than Turkish) who participated in an online study. An implicit association test revealed that negative implicit attitudes towards people with a Turkish immigrant background were present among adolescents. Unlike adolescents with a Turkish immigrant background, adolescents without immigrant background and with immigrant background other than Turkish hold negative implicit attitudes on average. For the total sample, it was found that low perceived discrimination was related to negative implicit attitudes. The results are discussed with respect to substantive and methodological aspects. Implications for research and practice are derived.

The relation of school achievement with self-esteem and bullying in Chilean children

Self-esteem and bullying and academic achievement measures are related in Western countries. However, evidence from other culture spaces is extremely sparse. To fill this gap, here, we analyze a wide range of relevant measures from 8,381 8- to 12-year-old Latin American children enrolled in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey in Chile. We considered the relationship of math achievement, receptive vocabulary, Grade Point Average (GPA), self-esteem and bullying. We found positive relationships between most achievement measures, and a negative relationship between self-esteem and bullying. Unlike the international literature, we found a stronger relationship between self-esteem and GPA, and a weaker relationship between bullying and GPA. Findings suggest that children’s learning and their experiences at school are connected. Results provide useful information for stakeholders.

Longitudinal Relationship Between Self-Esteem and Academic Self-Efficacy Among College Students in China: Evidence From a Cross-Lagged Model

The present study aimed to investigate the associations between self-esteem and academic self-efficacy among Chinese college students. Descriptive statistics showed that on average, students' academic self-efficacy experienced a downward trend in the first 3 years before rising slightly in the graduation year, and that male students had higher academic self-efficacy than females in the first 2 years, whereas female students' academic self-efficacy surpassed their male counterparts in the latter years. There were significant, positive associations between the two variables. With cross-lagged analysis, we found that students' self-esteem significantly predicted their subsequent academic self-efficacy from the freshman to the junior years, and the effects among male students endured longer and stronger. Implications of the findings were discussed.

Evolution of Self-Awareness and the Cultural Emergence of Academic and Non-academic Self-Concepts

Schooling is ubiquitous in the modern world and academic development is now a critical aspect of preparation for adulthood. A step back in time to pre-modern societies and an examination of life in remaining traditional societies today reveals that universal formal schooling is an historically recent phenomenon. This evolutionary and historical recency has profound implications for understanding academic development, including how instructional practices modify evolved or biological primary abilities (e.g., spoken language) to create evolutionarily novel or biologically secondary academic competencies (e.g., reading). We propose the development of secondary abilities promotes the emergence of academic self-concepts that in turn are supported by evolved systems for self-awareness and self-knowledge. Unlike some forms of self-knowledge (e.g., relative physical abilities) that appear to be universal and central to many people's overall self-concept, the relative importance of academic self-concepts are expected to be dependent on explicit social and cultural supports for their valuation. These culturally contingent self-concepts are contrasted with universal social and physical self-concepts, with implications for understanding variation students' relative valuation of academic competencies and their motivations to engage in academic learning.

Flourishing in Resonance: Joint Resilience Building Through Music and Motion

Worldwide, children face adverse childhood experiences, being exposed to risks ranging from, exposure to political violence and forced migration over the deleterious effects of climate change, to unsafe cultural practices. As a consequence, children that seek refuge or migrate to European countries are extremely vulnerable, often struggling with integration in school, peer community, and their broader social circle. This multifaceted struggle can derive from external factors, such as the adaptation process and contact with other children, or internal factors such as the fears and trauma that every child carries within them since they departed from their homeland. To bounce, grow, connect, and create in both adversity and opportunity, children need to build resilience, i.e., the capacity of an individual to maintain stable psychological functioning throughout the course of adversity. On the one hand, building resilience requires developing a set of individual skills (internal protective factors), such as self-control, emotion regulation, self-esteem, and agency. On the other hand, building resilience involves developing social skills (external protective factors), connection, and close relationships. In this theoretical contribution, we review and map existing research to argue that activities based on the combination of music and movement has a strong potential to intensively build resilience. First, we connect the concepts of resilience and eudaimonia, based on the protective factors and key components of resilience. Then we discuss how music and movement, separately, may contribute to building resilience. Next, drawing on the basic mechanisms of musical sense-making, we argue that through combining music and movement, children engage in empowering musical sense-making processes that support building resilience, and in this way, support them to grow together and deeply experience eudaimonic values such as self-awareness, confidence and self-esteem, personal autonomy, connection, belonging, and bonding. Finally, we connect theory to practice. Based on the presented theoretical elaborations and on the authors’ experience as practitioners, we propose a set of guiding principles for the design of movement-based musical activities that foster the internal and external factors necessary to build resilience.

Subject-Specific Self-Concept and Global Self-Esteem Mediate Risk Factors for Lower Competency in Mathematics and Reading

Self-concept and self-esteem are strongly tied to both academic achievement and risk factors for lower academic achievement. The German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) provides large-scale representative longitudinal data for mathematics, reasoning as well as risk factors, self-concept and self-esteem. Based on measurements in grades five to nine, this paper produces theory-based partially mediated latent growth models with multiple indicators and mediators. This includes the predictors of special education needs (SEN) status, socioeconomic status (SES), reasoning ability, gender, and school track, with both global self-esteem and subject-specific self-concept as mediators. Significant mediatory relationships are found for SEN, gender, reasoning ability, and school track on grade 5 math and reading competence, but neither direct nor mediated effects on rate of change were found. Implications for researchers and educators are discussed.

Racial Equity in Academic Success: The Role of School Climate and Social Emotional Learning

Many schools and school districts have put significant effort into improving school climate and the social emotional learning (SEL) of students, as they have been shown to be related to improved academic success. Yet, little is known about whether these efforts will contribute to or ameliorate racial differences in academic outcomes. In a series of structural equation models adjusting for school clustering, this study examined mediating and moderating effects of student perceptions of school climate and their own SEL on race differences in self-reported grades. Asian and Latinx students reported slightly more positive perceived school climate while Multiracial students reported significantly less positive perceived school climate compared to White students. Compared to their White peers, all racial groups reported lower levels of SEL. Significant but small indirect standardized effects of race on grades through social emotional competence but not school climate suggest that SEL partially mediates the relationship of race with grades. The association of SEL with grades was significantly stronger for White students compared to other racial groups; the standardized effect size of the association was nearly twice as large for White students as for Black and Native students.

Early implicit-explicit discrepancies in self-esteem as correlates of childhood depressive symptoms

This longitudinal study examined early social-cognitive markers that might be associated with the emergence of childhood depression and anxiety. At 5 years of age, 137 children completed an implicit self-esteem measure. At 9 years of age, the same children completed measures of implicit self-esteem, explicit self-esteem, depression, and anxiety. Two novel findings emerged. First, higher implicit self-esteem at age 5 than explicit self-esteem at age 9 (implicit > explicit discrepancy) was associated with depressive symptoms at age 9, but not with symptoms of anxiety. Second, this cross-age implicit > explicit discrepancy was associated with depressive symptoms more strongly than was the same implicit > explicit discrepancy measured concurrently at age 9. The overall pattern suggests that the appearance of depressive symptoms in children is associated with discrepancies between implicit and explicit self-esteem and not just lower levels of implicit self-esteem or lower levels of explicit self-esteem taken alone. It is the direction and discrepancy across time that is particularly informative, such that discrepancies between early implicit representations and later explicit reports of self-worth reflect a developmental pathway associated with elevated risk for depressive symptoms. Taken altogether, this study illustrates the benefits of combining work in developmental, child-clinical, and social psychology to provide a more complete view of the developing child. We believe that combining implicit and explicit measures of self-esteem across developmental time points can be used to examine early markers of depression in children at younger ages than typically possible with explicit measures alone.

The role of cognitive and non-cognitive factors in mathematics achievement: The importance of the quality of the student-teacher relationship in middle school

There is increasing evidence that several factors, including both cognitive and non-cognitive ones, play an important role in mathematics achievement. Relatively little is known about how socio-emotional features and the quality of the student-teacher relationship correlate with mathematics achievement among adolescents in transition to middle school. The aim of the present study is to examine the role of cognitive factors (general cognitive abilities), non-cognitive factors (math anxiety and self-esteem), and the quality of the student-teacher relationship on mathematics achievement. A large sample of Italian sixth graders was evaluated upon entering middle school. The results showed that general cognitive ability was the best predictor of mathematics achievement. As regards non-cognitive factors, the level of math anxiety was effective in predicting mathematics achievement, after controlling for other measures including self-esteem and the quality of the student-teacher relationship. In particular, we found that the quality of the student-teacher relationship had an indirect influence on mathematics achievement through the mediation of math anxiety. Our findings seem to indicate that the quality of the student-teacher relationship may be related to mathematics achievement, through its effects on math anxiety. This may have important implications for practitioners and educators, as we can suggest that interventions devoted to improving the quality of the student-teacher relationship may play a positive role in both preventing math anxiety and promoting mathematics learning.

Effects of peer tutoring on middle school students' mathematics self-concepts

The effects of peer tutoring on students’ mathematics self-concepts were examined. The Marsh questionnaire was used to measure students’ mathematics self-concepts before and after implementation of a peer tutoring program. A pretest posttest control group design was employed. Study participants included 376 students from grades 7 to 9 (12 to 15 years old). No statistically significant differences were reported between the pretest and the posttest for any of the control groups. Statistically significant improvements were reported for all grades for the experimental groups. An average increment of 13.4% was reported for students in the experimental group, and the overall effect size was reported to be medium (Hedges’ g = 0.48). No statistically significant differences were reported across grades for the experimental group. The main conclusion of this study is that same-age and reciprocal peer tutoring may be very beneficial for middle school students’ mathematics self-concepts. Several recommendations for field practitioners emanated from the study: use same-age and reciprocal tutoring over cross-age and fixed peer tutoring; schedule tutoring programs for four weeks or less with two to four sessions of 25 minutes or less per week for each tutoring session; and, include a control group in research studies.

Academic Achievement, Self-Concept, Personality and Emotional Intelligence in Primary Education. Analysis by Gender and Cultural Group

A review of the scientific literature shows that many studies have analyzed the relationship between academic achievement and different psychological constructs, such as self-concept, personality, and emotional intelligence. The present work has two main objectives. First, to analyze the academic achievement, as well as the self-concept, personality and emotional intelligence, according to gender and cultural origin of the participants (European vs. Amazigh). Secondly, to identify what dimensions of self-concept, personality and emotional intelligence predict academic achievement. For this, a final sample consisting of 407 students enrolled in the last 2 years of Primary Education were utilized for the study. By gender, 192 were boys (47.2%) and 215 girls (52.8%), with an average age of 10.74 years old. By cultural group, 142 were of European origin (34.9%) and 265 of Amazigh origin (65.1%). The academic achievements were evaluated from the grades obtained in three school subjects: Natural Sciences, Spanish Language and Literature, and Mathematics, and the instruments used for data collection of the psychological constructs analyzed were the Self-Concept Test-Form 5, the Short-Form Big Five Questionnaire for Children, and the BarOn Emotional Quotient Inventory: Youth Version-Short. Based on the objectives set, first, the grades in the subject of Spanish Language and Literature varied depending on the gender of the students. Likewise, differences were found in self-concept, personality, and emotional intelligence according to gender. Also, the physical self-concept varied according to the cultural group. Regarding the second objective, in the predictive analysis for each of the subjects of the curriculum of Primary Education, the academic self-concept showed a greater predictive value. However, so did other dimensions of self-concept, personality and emotional intelligence. The need to carry out a comprehensive education in schools that addresses the promotion of not only academic but also personal and social competences is discussed. Also, that the study of the variables that affect gender differences must be deepened.

Does self-esteem lead to high achievement of the science college's students? A study from the six health science colleges

Background and objective

Self-esteem refers to a degree to which a person esteem himself or herself, the summation in light of cognizant self-evaluative considerations and feeling or in short as global emotional placement of self. This study investigates the relationship between self-esteem, social factors, and academic achievement in the form of grade point average (GPA) standing for academic achievement in the health science colleges.

Methods

This study is a quantitative cross-sectional design. The study was conducted at Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University (PNU), and the participants were health Science Colleges' undergraduate students. The questionnaire is composed of 24 questions in 4 main sections. The self-esteem was evaluated by using a validated Rosenberg Self-Esteem 7-questions Scale used only.

Results

A total of 551 questionnaires were distributed to the students, and 507 of them responded. Out of 507 responded, 7 were excluded due to a lack of the information. 47 (9.4%) were Foundation year students, 109 (21.8%) Medical students, 44 (8.8%) Dental students, 97 (19.4%) Pharmacy students, 101 (20.2%) Nursing students and 102 (20.4%) from Applied science. The students’ overall responses demonstrated that most of the health science students agreed in a positive way of self-esteem (1.68 ± 0.31).

Conclusion

The findings from the current study contribute to the resources to better oversee projects to upgrade health sciences students' self-esteem, some short term courses (i.e. English, personality development and motivation) are requested to boost the academic career and confidence by lifting self-esteem; it indirectly helps to better academic performance. Students also need special counseling for how to deal with stress, anxiety and depression.

Exploring Self-Compassion and Versions of Masculinity in Men Athletes

Despite a growing emphasis on self-compassion in sport, little research has focused exclusively on men athletes. The purpose of this research was to explore the interaction of self-compassion and diverse versions of masculinity on the psychosocial well-being of men athletes. The authors sampled 172 men athletes (Mage = 22.8 yr) from a variety of sports, using descriptive methodology with self-report questionnaires. Self-compassion was related to most variables (e.g., psychological well-being, fear of negative evaluation, state self-criticism, internalized shame, reactions to a hypothetical sport-specific scenario) in hypothesized directions and predicted unique variance beyond self-esteem across most of those variables, as well as moderated relationships between masculinity and both autonomy and attitudes toward gay men. In addition, self-compassion was differentially related to inclusive and hegemonic masculinity. Our findings support self-compassion as a promising resource for men athletes to buffer emotionally difficult sport experiences.

The Role of Primary School Composition in the Trajectories of Internalising and Externalising Problems across Childhood and Adolescence

There is little research on the role of school and its composition in explaining individual children’s psychological outcomes. This study examined for the first time the role of several primary-school compositional characteristics, and their interactions with individual level characteristics, in the development of two such outcomes, internalising and externalising problems, at ages 7, 11 and 14 years in 4794 children in England participating in the Millennium Cohort Study. Using hierarchical (multilevel) linear models, we found that, even after adjusting for individual and family characteristics, children in schools with higher proportions of pupils eligible for free school meals had more externalising problems. In general, children with special educational needs, lower academic performance, more distressed mothers, and those in non-intact families had more internalising and externalising problems. Our results underline the importance of targeting schools with less affluent overall intakes, but also highlight the key role of individual and family characteristics in the development of their pupils’ psychological functioning.

Pediatric ophthalmology and childhood reading difficulties: Amblyopia and slow reading

Reading is a major life activity, as recognized by the US Congress in the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008, and the education code of most US states requires schools to evaluate reading and implement reading programs to addresses students' reading difficulties. Currently, such legislation is employed to identify accommodations needed for children with bilateral visual impairment and for children with dyslexia and/or related learning disabilities. Yet recent research has shown that children with the most common form of monocular visual impairment-amblyopia-read slowly. Slow reading can be detrimental to academic performance and learning, which in turn may affect self-esteem. Parents and educators can work together to implement accommodations (eg, extra time) to help amblyopic students succeed in their daily school tasks, and improve their performance on the timed, standardized tests that are critical for promotion and admission to magnet schools, TAG programs, high schools, and colleges. Children with other visual disorders that cause visual impairment in one eye (eg, glaucoma, cataract, trauma, etc) should also be considered for academic accommodations.