Cognitive ability, academic achievement and academic self-concept: Extending the internal/external frame of reference model

• Published in: British journal of educational psychology Vol. 82; no. 2; pp. 308 - 326
• Main Authors: Chen, Ssu-Kuang, Hwang, Fang-Ming, Yeh, Yu-Chen, Lin, Sunny S. J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.06.2012; Wiley-Blackwell; British Psychological Society
• Subjects: Academic Achievement; Achievement; Adolescent; Aptitude; Aptitudes; Biological and medical sciences; Cognition; Cognitive abilities; Cognitive Ability; Cognitive models; Correlation; Data Collection; Educational psychology; Female; Foreign Countries; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Grade 10; Grades (Scholastic); Humans; Indirect effects; Internal-External Control; Male; Mathematics Skills; Polls & surveys; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Pupil and student. Academic achievement and failure; Secondary school students; Self Concept; Self esteem; Selfconcept; Student Attitudes; Surveys; Taiwan; Verbal Ability; Taiwan; Human; Academic achievement; Adolescent; Cognitive ability; Cognition; Personality; Self concept; Academic ability; Frame of reference
• ISSN: 0007-0998; 2044-8279
• DOI: 10.1111/j.2044-8279.2011.02027.x

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 examine the influences of domain‐specific cognitive ability and grades on domain self‐concept in an extended I/E model, including the indirect effect of domain‐specific cognitive ability on domain self‐concept via grades. Sample. Tenth grade respondents (628 male, 452 female) to a national adolescent survey conducted in Taiwan. Method. Respondents completed surveys designed to measure maths and verbal aptitudes. Data on Maths and Chinese class grades and self‐concepts were also collected. Results. Statistically significant and positive path coefficients were found between cognitive ability and self‐concept in the same domain (direct effect) and between these two constructs via grades (indirect effect). The cross‐domain effects of either ability or grades on ASC were negatively significant. Conclusions. Taiwanese 10th graders tend to evaluate their ASCs based on a mix of ability and achievement, with achievement as a mediator exceeding ability as a predictor. In addition, the cross‐domain effects suggest that Taiwanese students are likely to view Maths and verbal abilities and achievements as distinctly different.