An integrated model of academic self-concept development: academic self-concept, grades, test scores, and tracking over six years

Our newly proposed Integrated Academic Self-concept Model integrates three major theories of academic self-concept formation and developmental perspectives into a unified conceptual and methodological framework. Relations among math self-concept (MSC), school grades, test scores, and school-level contextual effects over six years, from the end of primary school through the first five years of secondary school (a representative sample of 3,370 German students, 42 secondary schools, 50% males, Mn age = 11.75) support the: 1. Internal/external frame of reference model: math school grades had positive effects on MSC, but the effects of German grades were negative; 2. Reciprocal effects (longitudinal panel) model: MSC was predictive of and predicted by math test scores and school grades; 3. Big-fish-little-pond effect: the effects on MSC were negative for school-average achievement based on four indicators (primary school grades in math and German; school-track prior to the start of secondary school; math test scores in the first year of secondary school). Results in all three theoretical models were consistent across the five secondary school years: this supports the prediction of developmental equilibrium. This integration highlights the robustness of support over the potentially volatile early-to-middle adolescent period, the interconnectedness and complementarity of three ASC models, their counter-balancing strengths and weaknesses, and new theoretical, developmental, and substantive implications at their intersections