Self-concept and academic performance in gifted and academically weak students.
Garzarelli, Pamela ; Everhart, Barbara ; Lester, David 等
A number of studies have supported the contention that positive
self-concept and academic achievement are closely interwoven (Beck,
1984; Purkey, 1970). Fitts (1972) has suggested that persons with
optimal self-concept are apt to use their intellectual resources more
efficiently. Educators and those involved in improving academic
achievement should, therefore, strive to enhance students'
self-concept.
The present study sought to extend these ideas by seeking additional
correlates of academic achievement, including extracurricular
activities, the family environment, and gender.
METHOD
The 7th- and 8th-grade students studied included 33 academically
gifted students (average percentile on academic tests = 93, SD = 5) and
33 academically weak students (average percentile = 12, SD = 10). Twenty
students were black, 5 Hispanic, 1 native American, and 40 white.
Students were administered the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale (Fitts,
1965). They were also asked whether they lived with their natural
parents or stepparents, and to indicate the extracurricular activities
in which they participated.
RESULTS
The academically weak students were more often male (79% versus 42%;
||chi~.sup.2~ = 9.14, p |is less than~ .01), black (55% versus 6%;
||chi~.sup.2~ = 18.37, p |is less than~ .01), more often lived with a
stepparent (33% versus 3%; ||chi~.sup.2~ = 10.20, p |is less than~ .01),
and participated in fewer extracurricular activities (mean = 1.4, SD =
1.2, versus mean = 2.3, SD = 1.3; t = 2.89, p = .005) than did the
gifted students. The academically weak students did not differ
significantly in self-concept from the gifted students (mean = 321, SD =
30, versus mean = 335, SD = 31, respectively; t = 1.88).
Interestingly, for the academically weak students, self-concept was
associated with extracurricular activities (Pearson's r = .29,
|rho~ |is less than~ .05), but not with their academic percentile, their
gender, or whether they came from a broken home (r = .16, .05, and .13,
respectively). In contrast, for the gifted students, self-concept was
associated with academic percentile, gender, and participation in
extracurricular activities (r = .30, - .37, and .41, respectively; p |is
less than~ .05), but not with whether they came from a broken home (r =
.13).
For the academically weak students, academic achievement was related
only to living with a stepparent (r = -.38, p |is less than~ .05), while
for the gifted students, academic achievement was related only to
self-concept (r = .30, p |is less than~ .05).
DISCUSSION
The results of the present study indicate that self-concept and
academic achievement are associated only in academically strong
students. No such association was identified in the present sample of
academically weak students. In contrast, living with a stepparent was
associated with poorer academic achievement in the academically weak
students.
It is, therefore, important to replicate the results of research on
such associations as academic achievement and self-concept in different
status groups in order to ascertain which associations are relevant to
the different groups, rather than assuming that a result found to hold
for one group will necessarily hold for all groups.
REFERENCES
Beck, J. (1984). Self-concept of high school seniors and its
relationship to sex, ethnicity, academic achievement, absenteeism, and
delinquency. Unpublished master's thesis, Texas Women's
University, Denton, Texas.
Fitts, W. H. (1965). Tennessee Self-Concept Scale manual. Nashville,
TN: State Department of Mental Health.
Fitts, W. H. (1972). The self-concept and performance. Nashville, TN:
Dede Wallace Center.
Purkey, W. W. (1970). Self-concept and school achievement. Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
