Self-esteem and academic achievement among adolescents

Martins, Margarida Alves; Peixoto, Francisco José Brito; Pereira, Maria Gouveia; Amaral, Virgílio Ribeiro; Pedro, Isaura

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.12/1819

Use this identifier to reference this record.

Name:	Description:	Size:	Format:
EP 2002 22(1) 51-62.pdf		160.06 KB	Adobe PDF	Download

Send Feedback

Authors

Martins, Margarida Alves

Peixoto, Francisco José Brito

Pereira, Maria Gouveia

Amaral, Virgílio Ribeiro

Pedro, Isaura

Abstract(s)

The main purpose of this research is to analyse what strategies are pursued in order to protect self-esteem when it is threatened by a negative self-evaluation of school competence. Participants were 838 secondary-school students from the seventh to the ninth grades. Data were collected using Harter’s Self-Perception Pro le for Adolescents, together with a Scale of Attitudes towards School. Our results show that there are signi cant differences between the self-esteem enjoyed by successful and unsuccessful students in the seventh grade; such differences disappear in the eighth and ninth grades. They also reveal success-related differences in domain-speci c self-evaluation. We also found that students with low levels of academic achievement attribute less importance to school-related areas and reveal less favourable attitudes towards school. We discuss these results in terms of Harter’s self-esteem model and Robinson and Tayler’s self-esteem protection model.