Measuring academic Self-Concept in children: A comparison of two scales

✍ Scribed by Joy Patricia Burke; Geraldine Cain Ellison; Jeanne P. Hunt

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1985
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 363 KB
• Volume: 22
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0033-3085
• DOI: 10.1002/1520-6807(198507)22:3<260::aid-pits2310220305>3.0.co;2-h

✦ Synopsis

While numerous studies attest to a relationship between academic self-concept and achievement, a variety o f measures of self-concept have been used, and the equivalence o f these instruments has received limited attention. In this investigation, the Self-concept of Ability Scale (SCAS) and the newer and less examined Self-Perception o f Attainment Scale (SPAS) were compared for their ability to predict achievement in reading as measured by the California Achievement Test (CAT). We predicted that: (a) both scales would be significant predictors of reading achievement, (b) when used as single predictors, the SCAS would have significantly greater weight than the SPAS, and (c) a linear combination of these scales would have greater weight than either scale alone. Using 187 eighth-grade students, we confirmed that both scales were significant predictors of achievement in reading and that a linear combination of the two accounted for more variance than either scale alone. We did not find, however, that the SCAS was a significantly better predictor than the SPAS.