The issue of race differences in standardized test scores and academic achievement continues to be a vexing one for behavioral scientists and society at large. Ellis and Ryan (2003) suggested that a portion of the cognitive-ability test performance differences between White/Caucasian-American and Black/African-American college students could be…

This study examined the mutual influence of relatively stable personal competence and value beliefs and lesson specific appraisals of competence and value on daily emotional experiences of students in the classroom context. Personal competence and value beliefs were measured by means of questionnaire whereas appraisals and daily emotions were…

The present study examined the reciprocal relationships between self-concept and anxiety in mathematics. A sample of 495 grade 7 students (51% girls) completed self-report measures assessing self-concept and anxiety three times in a school year. Structural equation modeling was used to test a cross-lagged panel model of reciprocal effects between…

Marsh and Koller (2004) combined the reciprocal-effects model and the internal/external frame-of-reference model into a unified model of relationships between academic self-concept and achievement. However, this model has only been examined with German adolescents. We decided to test this model with two-wave data drawn from a national survey of…

Past research into the ability of students to "bounce back" from everyday academic setback (academic buoyancy) has lacked sensitivity to the contexts in which children demonstrate this behavior. Here we aimed to contextualize past findings by reporting the results of an exploratory investigation that featured: (1) repeated measurement of…

The study described here aimed to examine the relations between test anxiety, competence beliefs and achievement goals, and in particular if the relations between competence beliefs and test anxiety were moderated by achievement goals. Pupils in their first year of secondary schooling completed self-report questionnaires for test anxiety,…

This study investigates the effects of class-average ability (intelligence) and class type (gifted vs. regular) on Math academic self-concept. The sample comprised 722 fifth-grade students (376 female) in a setting of full-time ability grouping at the top track of the German secondary high school system. Students came from 34 different classes at…

The present study examined how beliefs about intelligence, as mediated by ability-validation goals, predicted whether students lost or maintained levels of intrinsic motivation over the course of a single academic year. 978 third- through eighth-grade students were surveyed in the fall about their theories concerning the malleability of…

To study the role of students' competence beliefs and their perceived teachers' ability evaluations for intrinsic motivation and achievement in math, 459 second graders from 27 German classrooms were examined. Students provided self-reports on their intrinsic motivation, competence beliefs and perceived teachers' ability evaluations in math.…

Three conceptual models were tested to examine the relationships among academic self-concept, autonomous academic motivation, and academic achievement. This allowed us to determine whether 1) autonomous academic motivation mediates the relation between academic self-concept and achievement, 2) academic self-concept mediates the relation between…

The effects of personal characteristics (e.g. personality, aptitude, gender) on student performance, such as Grade Point Average (GPA) and course grades, have been systematically researched, with the emphasis being mainly on outcomes rather than the processes leading to them. The purpose of this paper is to shift the focus to students' perceived…

Early academic perceptions are critical to undergraduate students' success in college. This 3-phase study examined stability of and links between academic comparative optimism (ACO; positive expectations about future performance) and perceived academic control (PAC; sense of influence over academic outcomes) among 68 undergraduate students. ACO…

The study examined the relationship between implicit theories, goal orientations, subjective and test estimates of intelligence, academic self-concept, and achievement in a selective student population (N=300). There was no direct impact of implicit theories of intelligence and goal orientations on achievement. However, subjective evaluations of…

This paper reviews findings from several studies that contribute to our understanding of cross-cultural differences in academic achievement, anxiety and self-doubt. The focus is on comparisons between Confucian Asian and European regions. Recent studies indicate that high academic achievement of students from Confucian Asian countries is…

Prior research on the structure of academic self-concepts has demonstrated academic self-concepts to be domain-specific and hierarchically organized, but has largely failed to support the hypothesis that general academic self-concept is at the apex of the hierarchy. The present study investigates a new multidimensional nested-factor model of…