Previous research has shown that three comparison types are involved in the formation of students' academic self-concepts: social comparisons (where students compare their achievement with their classmates), dimensional comparisons (where students compare their achievement in different subjects), and temporal comparisons (where students compare…

The authors connect Möller and Marsh's dimensional comparison theory with Eccles, Wigfield, and colleagues' expectancy-value theory of achievement performance and choice, to help explain the observed relations between key constructs in expectancy-value theory and their relations to individuals' achievement outcomes by specifying processes that…

Academic self-concept and achievement have been found to be reciprocally related across time. However, existing research has focused on self-concept and achievement scores that have been averaged over long time-periods. For the first time, the present study examined intraindividual (within-person) relations between momentary (state) self-concept…

Two longitudinal extensions of the classic internal/external frame of reference model (I/EM) have attracted researchers' attention in recent years: The reciprocal I/EM (RI/EM) describes the reciprocal effects between students' math and verbal achievements and self-concepts. The 2I/EM describes the effects of students' math and verbal achievement…

This article presents a meta-analysis on cognitive (e.g., academic performance) and psychosocial outcomes (e.g., self-concept, well-being) among students with general learning difficulties and their peers without learning difficulties in inclusive versus segregated educational settings. In total, we meta-analyzed k = 40 studies with 428 effect…

A positive academic self-concept (ASC) relates to many desirable educational outcomes. Research on which student characteristics relate to the formation of ASC is therefore crucial. To examine the importance of personality for ASC, we investigated the relation between Big Five traits and mean level as well as within-person variability in state…

Dimensional comparisons between math and verbal achievements affect students' academic self-concepts by increasing (decreasing) students' self-concept in the subject with their intraindividual higher (lower) achievement. Dimensional comparison theory assumes that dimensional comparisons are also triggered by external influences. The present…

Dimensional comparison theory (DCT; Möller & Marsh, 2013) assumes that students compare their academic achievement intraindividually across domains to form domain-specific self-concepts. Upward dimensional comparisons are believed to lead to lower self-concepts in the worse-off domain, while downward dimensional comparisons should lead to…

The internal/external frame of reference model (I/E model) posits that individuals' achievement-related self-concepts are formed through social comparisons (e.g., self vs. peers) within academic domains and dimensional comparisons (e.g., math vs. verbal) between distinct domains. A large body of research has supported the theorized pattern of…

The present research examined the joint effects of social, dimensional, and temporal comparisons on students' academic self-concepts and parents' beliefs about their children's competencies during students' transition phase from elementary school to junior high school. To this end, we tested the newly developed 2I/E model using longitudinal data…

Dimensional comparisons, where students compare their achievements in different subjects, have a significant impact on the formation of students' subject-specific self-concepts. This research examines the influence of five moderators that have been shown in previous research to affect the strength of dimensional comparison effects: (1) the…

Students evaluate their domain-specific abilities by comparing their own achievement in a certain domain with the achievement of others (social comparison), with their own prior achievement (temporal comparison), and with their own achievement in other domains (dimensional comparison). This article is the first to analyze the simultaneous effects…

Students evaluate their domain-specific abilities by comparing their own achievement in one domain to that of others (social comparison), to their own previous achievement (temporal comparison), as well as their own achievement in another domain (dimensional comparison). The theories underlying these three comparison processes each assume an…

Dimensional comparisons are comparisons of one's accomplishments between two domains (e.g., comparisons between math and verbal achievements) that affect our self-perceptions in the domains compared with each other. In particular, dimensional comparisons explain the seemingly paradoxical finding, described in the internal/external frame of…

The dimensional comparison theory (DCT) focuses on the effects of internal, dimensional comparisons (e.g., "How good am I in math compared to English?") on academic self-concepts with widespread consequences for students' self-evaluation, motivation, and behavioral choices. DCT is based on the internal/external frame of reference model…