Background: Among ethnic minority group adolescents, experiences with discrimination and prejudice in school settings are thought to lead to a defensive detachment of the self from the school domain. That is, these adolescents may disengage their self-feelings from their academic performances causing the academic self to become a less important part of global self-worth. However, there is limited empirical evidence for this assumption and the existing research is on African American students. Aims: To examine among ethnic minority adolescents in the Netherlands the hypothesis that under conditions of perceived discrimination minority group members tend to psychologically disengage their self-feelings from educational performance. Samples. Study 1 was conducted among 161 Turkish students between 13 and 16 years of age. The sample in Study 2 consisted of 112 Turkish participants of 11 and 12 years of age. Methods: Two questionnaire studies were conducted and participants responded to questions on perceived academic performance, academic self-esteem, global self-worth and perceived discrimination in school. Results: In both studies, academic self-esteem mediated the relationship between perceived educational performance and feelings of global self-worth. More importantly, perceived discrimination in school moderated the relationship between academic self-esteem and global self-worth. Discrimination did not moderate the relationship between academic performance and academic selfesteem. Conclusion: The results indicate that for ethnic minorities perceived discrimination in school can lead to psychological disidentification from the academic domain whereby global self-worth is less based on performances and competencies in the academic domain.