Background: Modelling academic self-concept through second-order factors or bifactor structures is an important issue with substantive and practical implications; besides, the bifactor model has not been analysed with a Chinese sample and cross-cultural studies in the academic self-concept are scarce. Likewise, latent structure validity evidence…

Background: The control-value theory of achievement emotions postulates that it is possible to affect achievement emotions by decreasing or increasing control and value appraisals. This implies that changes in the latter should result in changes in the former. However, the assumption has been rarely tested. Aims: This study aimed at verifying…

Background: Adolescents spend a large percentage of their time at school, where learning and achievement are important activities that are vital to their future educational success and subsequent career opportunities. However, studies reveal a significant drop in satisfaction and performance during the teenage years. Aim: Based on the ecological…

Background: Students' self-concept of ability is an important predictor of their achievement emotions. However, little is known about how learning environments affect these interrelations. Aims: Referring to Pekrun's control-value theory, this study investigated whether teacher-reported teaching quality at the classroom level would moderate the…

Background: The cross-lagged panel (regression) model (CLPM) is the usual framework of choice to test the longitudinal reciprocal effects between self-concept and achievement. Criticisms of the CLPM are that causal paths are over-estimated as they fail to discriminate between- and within-person variation. The random-intercept cross-lagged panel…

Background: Studies in the United States show that school students from some ethnic backgrounds are susceptible to stereotype threat, that this undermines their academic performance, and that a series of virtually zero-cost self-affirmation writing exercises can reduce these adverse effects. In England, however, socioeconomic status (SES) is a…

Background: Mind wandering (MW) has commonly been linked to bad scholastic performance; however, such association has rarely been investigated in the classroom. Moreover, in examining such association, motivational variables have been largely ignored. Aim: We aimed at examining the associations between the dispositional tendency to engage in MW…

Background: Achievement in math and achievement in verbal school subjects are more strongly correlated than the respective academic self-concepts. The internal/external frame of reference model (I/E model; Marsh, 1986, "Am. Educ. Res. J.," 23, 129) explains this finding by social and dimensional comparison processes. We investigated a…

Background: Boys earn lower grades in languages than girls. The expectancy-value model by Eccles" et al." (1983, "A series of books in psychology. Achievement and achievement motives. Psychological and sociological approaches," W.H. Freeman, San Francisco, CA, 76) is a comprehensive theoretical model for explaining gender…

Background: Marsh's internal/external (I/E) frame of reference model depicts the relationship between achievement and self-concept in specific academic domains. Few efforts have been made to examine concurrent relationships among cognitive ability, achievement, and academic self-concept (ASC) within an I/E model framework. Aim: To simultaneously…

Background: The relation between academic self-concept and achievement has been examined in a large number of studies. The majority of these studies have found evidence for a reciprocal effects model. However, there is an ongoing debate on how students' achievement should be measured and whether the type of achievement indicator (grades, tests,…

Background: On the one hand, achievement indicators like grades or standardized test results are strongly associated with students' domain-specific self-concepts. On the other hand, self-evaluation processes seem to be triggered by a self-enhancing means of information processing. As a consequence, above average students have more positive…

Background: Securing appropriate challenge or preventing boredom is one of the reasons frequently used to justify ability grouping of gifted students, which has been shown to have beneficial effects for achievement. On the other hand, critics stress psychosocial costs, such as detrimental effects on academic self-concept (contrast or…

Background: Many studies have revealed that there is a significant decrease over time in high-school students' attitudes towards mathematics learning. Some authors conclude that motivation in mathematics stabilizes or improves around grade 9; others propose that the decline is continuous. It is unclear if girls or boys are more affected by this…

Background: Self-handicapping is an attribution-related process whereby individuals create performance impediments/excuses to protect self-worth in socially evaluative environments. Thus, the prevailing motivational climate would appear to be an important factor when attempting to understand the situational self-handicapping process within school…