Children's motivations to engage in everyday activities draw on their experiences in thinking of oneself and the activities. In theory, these personal and social realities provide the complex foundations of self-concepts. The aim of this project was to define the foundations of children's self-concepts about everyday activities; to focus…

The internal/external (I/E) frame of reference model (Marsh, "Am Educ Res J" 23:129-149, 1986) conceptualizes students' self-concepts as being formed by dimensional as well as social comparison processes. In the present study, the I/E model was tested and extended in a sample of elementary school children. Core academic skills of…

It is now well known that adolescence is frequently marked by a decline in students' achievement motivation, which in turn is often associated with a decline in individual school self-concept. Less is known about the mediating role of socio-motivational support in the association between individual school self-concept and achievement…

We measured age and gender differences in children's awareness and endorsement of gender stereotypes about math, science, and verbal abilities in 463 fourth, sixth, and eighth graders. Children reported their perceptions of adults' beliefs and their own stereotypes about gender differences in academic abilities. Consistent with study…

The aims of this study are to: (a) assess if cognitive self-concept (competence) and affective self-concept in mathematics and science are different constructs, (b) evaluate the construct validity of self-concept in the context of conflation and separation, and (c) test if the relationships among cognitive and affective variables are invariant…

Based on Weiner's attributional theory of intrapersonal motivation, the mediating effect of attributions between teacher judgment and student motivation was examined. In two studies, 144 German and 272 Chinese fourth-grade elementary school students were tested on their mathematical achievement, causal ascriptions for success and failure,…

School success is closely linked to intelligence but also to non-cognitive factors such as achievement motivation. The present study examines which non-cognitive factors predict secondary school grades and looks at reasons why female students tend to outperform their male counterparts. A sample of 554 German freshman students provided measures of…

Multiple methods were used to examine the academic motivation and cultural identity of a sample of college undergraduates. The children of immigrant parents (CIPs, n = 52) and the children of non-immigrant parents (non-CIPs, n = 42) completed surveys assessing core cultural identity, valuing of cultural accomplishments, academic self-concept,…

Students' self-determined or autonomous motivation in educational contexts is associated with adaptive educational and behavioural outcomes including persistence on educational tasks and academic performance. A key question for educators is whether promoting autonomous motivation toward activities in an educational context leads to increased…

The current study developed the concept of fear of success that was originally examined by Martina Horner (1970; "Journal of Social Issues", 28(2), 157-175, 1972). The key dimension in Horner's (1970; "Journal of Social Issues", 28(2), 157-175, 1972) studies was gender. The key dimension in the current study was social class. It was hypothesised…

The present study analyzed whether the perceived attainment of developmental goals differs by school type and between adolescents with visual impairments and sighted peers. We created a matched-pair design with 98 German students from the middle school track and 98 from the highest school track; half of the members of each group were visually…

The present study investigates in what ways teachers themselves see their significance vis-a-vis their students. Seven hundred fifty-seven teachers (64% females and 36% males) from 59 Israeli schools participated in the study. We found that in general, teachers view "significant teachers" as those that help and assist their students and those that…

Perceived legitimacy of parental control over adolescents' academic life was investigated by asking 1,088 Filipino adolescents to indicate who they thought should decide on a range of academic issues. Exploratory factor analysis suggested three factors: learning activities, academic participation, and academic options. Respondents rejected…

The present study investigated the relationship between statistics anxiety, individual characteristics (e.g., trait anxiety and learning strategies), and academic performance. Students enrolled in a statistics course in psychology (N = 147) filled in a questionnaire on statistics anxiety, trait anxiety, interest in statistics, mathematical…

Prior research has been devoted to understanding how to facilitate the integration of gifted young people (Intelligence Quotient, greater than or equal to 130) into classroom settings. This study investigated a typology of self-concept in gifted French high school students. Eighty-four participants, between the ages of 13 and 18 (mean age, 15.5;…