Ethnoracial Concordance in the Association between Academic Self-Efficacy and Achievement During Elementary and Middle School

• Published in: Education and Youth Today Vol. 20; pp. 31 - 63
• Main Authors: Hibel, Jacob, Penn, Daphne M, Morris, R. C
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Emerald Group Publishing Limited 01.01.2016
• Subjects: children/youth; Sociology; Sociology of the family; academic achievement; Academic self-efficacy; race/ethnicity
• ISBN: 1786350467; 9781786350466
• ISSN: 1537-4661
• DOI: 10.1108/S1537-466120160000020002

Abstract Purpose Social psychological perspectives on educational stratification offer explanations that bridge the macro and micro social worlds. However, while ethnoracial disparities in academic achievement are evident during the earliest grade levels, most social psychological research in this area has examined high school or college student samples and has used a black–white binary to operationalize race. Design/methodology/approach We use longitudinal structural equation models to examine links between academic self-efficacy beliefs and school performance among a national sample of diverse third- through eighth-grade students in the United States. Findings Contrary to hypotheses derived from the student identity literature, we find no evidence that elementary and middle school students from different ethnoracial backgrounds vary in the degree to which they selectively discount evaluative feedback in their academic self-efficacy construction, nor in the extent to which they demonstrate disrupted links between academic self-efficacy and subsequent academic performance. Originality/value The study examines the extent to which race-linked social psychological processes may be driving academic achievement inequalities during the primary schooling years.