Academic Self-Concept Wins the Race: The Prediction of Achievements in Three Major School Subjects by Five Subject-Specific Self-Related Variables

Abstract

The importance of self-related constructs in predicting academic achievement has been increasingly emphasized in recent decades. Typically, bivariate associations of self-related variables with achievements have been reported. Research quantifying the combined predictive power of more than two self-variables has been scarce. Moreover, except for the academic self-concept, these variables have almost always been measured across domains, i.e., without considering the specifics of individual school subjects. The current study aimed to statistically predict academic achievement (operationalized via school grades) in three major subjects (Chinese (native language), mathematics, and English (foreign language)) by using subject-tied scales, namely academic self-concept, conscientiousness, need for cognition, perseverance of effort, and consistency of interest. The sample comprised 791 Chinese adolescents. Each scale was related separately to each of the three school subjects. Hierarchical linear regression analyses were run. The control variable, biological sex, accounted for 2% of Chinese grades and 8% of English grades, but not of mathematics grades. Adding subject-specific self-concept scales increased the explained variance to 7% (Chinese), 16% (mathematics), and 32% (English). Further additions to the other four self-related scales did not increase the variances that were accounted for. The discussion underlines the relevance of subject-specific academic self-concepts as predictors for subject-tied academic achievements.

Coding Decoded: Exploring Course Achievement and Gender Disparities in an Online Flipped Classroom Programming Course

“…Positive academic self-concept contributed to better course achievement. Consistent with previous research, students who assessed their study-related skills as high showed better academic achievement [11,92,93]. Rather unexpectedly, mathematical self-concept was not related to course achievement in the programming course.…”

Sticking With It

“…A comprehensive meta-analysis (Credé et al, 2017) comprising 88 independent samples found that PE is highly related to conscientiousness (ρ = .83). The strong overlap between grit and conscientiousness was replicated in later empirical studies, indicating that “the perseverance facet of grit cannot be separated from the common factors … underlying conscientiousness” (Schmidt et al, 2018, p. 713; see Collaco, 2018; Feng & Rost, 2019; Rost & Feng, 2024; Ponnock, et al 2020; Rimfield et al, 2016). Furthermore, contrary to Duckworth’s claims, research reviews (Christopoulou et al, 2018; Allen et al, 2021) concluded that overall grit apparently appears to be only moderately to weakly related to academic performance.…”

“…However, further studies have shown that grit is composed of two correlated factors. Consequently, two separate scores for PE and CI have been established and measured (e.g., Cormier et al, 2019; Feng & Rost, 2019; Fong & Kim, 2021; He, Wu et al, 2021; Hein et al, 2021; Karlen et al, 2019; Larkin et al, 2023; Muenks et al, 2018; Obermeier et al, 2023; Rhodes & Giovannetti, 2021; Rost & Feng, 2024; Sigurdson & Petersen, 2018; Soleimanzadeh et al, 2024;Tortul et al, 2020; Tyumeneva et al, 2019; Xu et al, 2020; Zhao & Wang, 2023).…”

“…Other researchers used math-specific grit items (Yu et al, 2021, Schmidt et al, 2018), Cormier et al (2019). Rost and Feng (2024) measured both PE and CI, each itemized separately for three core school subjects (math, foreign language English, and native language Chinese). Mosewich et al (2021) and Rumbold et al (2022) adapted grit to sports, and Alamer (2021), Cheng (2021), Schmidt et al (2018), Sudina et al (2021), and Teimouri et al.…”

“…. underlying conscientiousness" (Schmidt et al, 2018, p. 713;see Collaco, 2018;Feng & Rost, 2019;Rost & Feng, 2024;Ponnock, et al 2020;Rimfield et al, 2016). Furthermore, contrary to Duckworth's claims, research reviews (Christopoulou et al, 2018;Allen et al, 2021) concluded that overall grit apparently appears to be only moderately to weakly related to academic performance.…”