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Abstract
Academic self-concept is the perception that a student has about his/her own academic abilities,
constitutes one of the most relevant variables in the academic world, because of its influence on
learning and cognitive functioning. Self-concept is a general assessment; nevertheless the current
measurement instruments used for this construct are specific rather than general. Thus the purpose
of this study was to construct and validate an academic self-concept scale with global dimensions,
focused on teenager students. In its first stage, an open questions survey was designed to be applied
with the intent of knowing the academic activities inside and outside the school. Afterwards, a clo-
sed questions survey was applied to a sampling consisting of 347 students ranging 14 to 18 years old
from a public high school, east of México City. After obtaining the internal consistency and the items
differentiation, a factorial analysis with orthogonal rotation was developed. The results grouped 16
items in 4 factors: self-regulation, general intellectual abilities, motivation and creativity. The scale
shows 44.72% of a varying with a global Cronbach Alpha of .828. The present study contributes with
an innovative scale with appropriate psychometric features, which globally assesses the academic
self-concept.
Key words: Academic self-concept, self-regulation, motivation, creativity, school achievement.
Ordaz-Villegas, Acle-Tomasini & Reyes-Lagunes
Resumen
El autoconcepto académico es la percepción que un estudiante tiene sobre sus habilidades académicas,
constituye una de las variables más relevantes dentro del escenario escolar, pues incide significativamente
en el funcionamiento cognoscitivo y en el aprendizaje. El autoconcepto es una valoración global, no
obstante, los instrumentos actuales que evalúan este constructo no cumplen con dicha característica,
miden dimensiones específicas. De aquí que el propósito del presente estudio fue construir y validar
una escala de autoconcepto académico con dimensiones globales para estudiantes adolescentes. En
un primer momento se desarrolló un cuestionario de preguntas abiertas con la finalidad de conocer las
actividades académicas dentro y fuera de la escuela. Posteriormente se elaboró un cuestionario cerrado.
Éste último se aplicó a una muestra de 347 estudiantes de entre 14 y 18 años de edad, de un bachillerato
público del oriente de la Ciudad de México. Después de obtener la consistencia interna y la discrimi-
nación de reactivos, se realizó un análisis factorial con rotación ortogonal. Los resultados agruparon
16 reactivos en 4 factores: autorregulación, aptitudes intelectuales generales, motivación y creatividad.
La escala explica el 44.72% de la varianza, con un alpha de Cronbach global de .828. El presente trabajo
aporta una escala renovadora con propiedades psicométricas adecuadas, que evalúa de forma global
el autoconcepto académico.
Palabras clave: Autoconcepto académico, autorregulación, motivación, creatividad, logro académico.
Introduction
Academic self-concept is the perception and Valle, 2002; Marsh & Shavelson, 1985); therefore,
evaluation that a student has or does about his if only two dimensions are used, evaluation is
or her academic abilities (Marsh & Rhonda, 2002). not thorough. Similarly, it is important to note
This self-concept is one of the most important that each dimension of academic self-concept
variables in the academic domain, due to its has a different value and when dimensions are
significant influence on appropriate cognitive clustered together, a compensation effect among
functioning (Santana, Feliciano, & Jiménez, 2009). them is shown. Low self-concept in a subject
It directly affects learning processes (Vidals, area is compensated for by high self-concept in
2005), academic achievement, and expectations another one (González-Pineda, Núñez, González-
of students (Henson & Heller, 2000). Additiona- Pumariega, & García, 1997; Marsh, 1993; Shavelson
lly, it helps to create various cognitive and self- et al., 1976). In consequence, as self-concept is
regulative strategies (Zimmerman, 2000), which being studied in mathematics and spanish subject
reflect on academic performance (Campo-Arias areas exclusively, then not only may collected
et al., 2005; Schunk, Printrich, & Meece, 2008). data be biased but the possibilities of discovering
Academic self-concept is multidimensional potentially compensated dimensions, if any, for
(Shavelson, Hubner, & Staton, 1976). Many stu- these two subject areas are lost.
dies consider each academic subject area as a Bandura (1987) states that self-concept is a
dimension, e.g., history, science, mathematics, global assessment. Nevertheless, currently a
spanish (Marsh, 1993; Shavelson et al., 1976). Howe- strong relation between self-concept in one
ver, most research focuses only on spanish and dimension and its specific subject area can be
mathematics, setting other taken subjects aside seen, which indicates that evaluation depends
(Marsh & Shavelson, 1985; Plucker & Stocking, on specific situations (Shavelson et al., 1976). It is
2001). This causes some problems associated with clear that, on the one hand, the aim of obtaining
evaluation and self-concept, especially when a global assessment is not achieved and, on the
viewed in adolescents. other hand, the relation between self-concept
First, as individuals grow, the number of di- and academic performance cannot be very close
mensions they can handle increases (Campo- if both constructs are to be differentiated from
Arias et al., 2005; González-Pineda, Núñez, & one another (Palacios & Zabala, 2007).
118 Journal of Behavior, Health & Social Issues vol. 5 num. 2 NOV-2013 / APR-2014
Academic Self Concept scale
In contrast, different dimensions compri- these abilities in order to measure his or her
sing or clustered into academic self-concept global academic self-concept.
are expected to bear a relation to one another Given the dilemma of the limitation of number
(González-Pineda et al., 1997); however, several of dimensions used to measure academic self-
research studies show little or no correlation concept and its importance in explaining and
between mathematical and spanish self-concepts predicting behavior in academic domain and
(Areepattamannil & Freeman, 2008). Marsh and expectations about the professional future of
Shavelson’s (1985) conclusion is that verbal self- adolescent high school students, the aim of this
concept and mathematical self-concept are di- study was to develop and validate psychometrically
fferent and, therefore, cannot be added to an an instrument measuring academic self-concept
academic self-concept dimension. through global academic dimensions, such as
By contrast, different empirical studies have general intellectual abilities, specific intellectual
found important divergence between students abilities, motivation, and creativity.
with high academic self-concept and students
with low academic self-concept. Students with Method
high academic self-concept value their own
abilities, accept challenges, take risks, try new Participants
things (Bong & Skaalvik, 2003), and also create The sample was non-probabilistic and consisted
multiple cognitive strategies (González-Pineda of 347 participants; 215 female (62%) and 132
et al., 1997). Moreover, they possess a higher male (38%) from grades 10 to 12 from a public
motivation to complete difficult academic tasks secondary education school in Eastern Mexico
and set higher goals (Pintrich, Roeser, & De City, with ages ranging from 14 to 18 years old
Groot, 1994). In this sense, most students with (mean age = 16.17, SD = 1.084). School authorities
high academic performance show high academic determined group assignment.
self-concept (Campo-Arias et al., 2005; Schunk,
Printrich, & Meece, 2008). Instrument
Students showing low academic self-concept The purpose of the scale was to identify high or
exhibit less confidence in their academic apti- low levels of academic self-concept. Therefore,
tudes (Amezcua & Fernández, 2000; Broc, 2000). the instrument was developed based on a priori
They undervalue their talent, avoid situations and emerging categories (Krippendorff, 2004). A
that cause anxiety (Ommundsen, Haugen, & priori categories were selected according to the
Lund, 2005); i. e., they have less cognitive and literature (González et al., 1999; López et al., 2011;
motivational resources than students with Risso et al., 2010; Zacatelco & Acle 2009) as follows:
positive self-concept (Núñez et al., 1998). And general intellectual abilities, specific intellectual
this is reflected on low academic performan- abilities, motivation, and creativity. Emerging ca-
ce (Möller, & Pohlman, 2010). Accordingly, tegories were obtained from an early exploratory
it is suggested that the abilities regulating phase, through open questions focused on activities
learning and academic performance that can in which adolescents engage. Subsequently, the
be considered are: both general and specific instrument was developed and the pilot test was
intellectual abilities, creativity, and motivation. administered to 10 expert judges in education.
In other words, learning is necessary to deve- The test was administered individually. Each one
lop aptitudes, acquire knowledge, and create of the recommendations made by the judges was
strategies, as well as intention and disposition considered. The scale consisted of 28 items with
(González, Valle, Suárez, & Fernández, 1999; 5-point Likert-type responses, ranging from “Ne-
López, Reyes-Lagunes, & Uribe, 2011; Risso, ver”, marked with number 1, to “Always”, marked
Peralbo, & Barca, 2010; Zacatelco & Acle 2009). with number 5. Additionally, an identification sheet
Consequently, it is very important to take into was included to collect personal and academic
account the perception and evaluation that an data, such as academic performance measured
adolescent student has or does in relation to by school grades average, etc. (Appendix A).
Journal of Behavior, Health & Social Issues vol. 5 num. 2 NOV-2013 / APR-2014 119
Ordaz-Villegas, Acle-Tomasini & Reyes-Lagunes
Procedure Results
For the development of the instrument, first
of all, previously established categories were Scale item distribution showed tendency towards
used based on the literature as follows: general normality, with a mean of 96.55 and a standard
intellectual abilities, specific intellectual abili- deviation of 15.191 (Figure 1).
ties, motivation, and creativity. Subsequently,
by means of some open questions in the explo-
ratory phase, one of the a priori categories was 50
ruled out and a new one emerged. Motivation
was ruled out and perfectionism emerged; i.
e., the pilot instrument categories changed 40
to the following: general intellectual abilities,
specific intellectual abilities, creativity, and
perfectionism. 30
Frecuencia
Based on the above-mentioned, an instrument
was developed, and validated by 10 expert judges.
All the judges are professors in different Schools
20
of Psychology of the Universidad Nacional
Autónoma de México (National Autonomous
University of Mexico), with a PhD in an area
10
of education. In order to get the instrument to
measure adequately and clearly the construct,
each judge was asked individually to validate
0
the content of each item. They were requested 40 60 80 100 120 140
to cross the items that were inadequate for Total
120 Journal of Behavior, Health & Social Issues vol. 5 num. 2 NOV-2013 / APR-2014
Academic Self Concept scale
Journal of Behavior, Health & Social Issues vol. 5 num. 2 NOV-2013 / APR-2014 121
Ordaz-Villegas, Acle-Tomasini & Reyes-Lagunes
found to differ significantly compared to that performance measurement of students with high
of students with high academic self-concept academic self-concept being higher.
(mean high ASC = 8.98; SD = .68), the academic
Table 4.
Correlation between factors in the scale.
General intellectual
Self-regulation Motivation Creativity
abilities
Self-regulation 1
General intellectual abilities .444** 1
Motivation .497** .323** 1
Creativity .439** .469** .258** 1
** p = 0.01
* p = 0.05
Discussion
The factorial structure of the Academic Self- coming the dilemma of missing dimensions that
Concept Scale was organized by four dimensions adolescent students can handle (Campo-Arias
as follows: self-regulation, general intellectual et al., 2005; González-Pineda, et al., 2002; Marsh
abilities, motivation, and creativity. It was inter- & Shavelson, 1985). Also the problem involving
esting to observe that self-regulation emerged as the close relation between a specific dimension
a new factor that was not considered when the and its corresponding subject (Marsh & Parker,
scale was being initially developed. This factor 1984) is settled since data on a particular school
is of the utmost importance since, on the one subject is not required, but data on ability per-
hand, it had the highest weight in the scale; and ception that enhance learning and high academic
on the other hand, self-regulated students create performance, as reflected on the dimensions
learning, planning, monitoring, and evaluation and items that comprise the scale.
strategies, as well as organization and restructura- Lastly, academic performance differences bet-
tion of their learning environment, i. e., students ween students with high academic self-concept
play an active role in their own learning process, and students with low academic self-concept were
which results in high academic performance that detected, which is in agreement with previous
in turn reflects on a high academic self-concept findings showing that most students with high
(Zimmerman, 2000). academic performance exhibit high academic
In contrast, construct multidimensional nature self-concept, and in contrast, students with low
is still observed across the diversity of factors academic performance show low academic self-
obtained in the Academic Self-Concept Scale as concept (Campo-Arias et al., 2005; Henson &
described in many studies (Marsh & Shavelson, Heller, 2000; Schunk et al., 2008).
1985; Shavelson et al., 1976). Said dimensions Therefore, in conclusion, this study provi-
showed a moderate and necessary relation to des a culturally relevant, innovative scale with
be considered as part of the same construct appropriate psychometric properties, which
(González-Pineda et al., 1997), whereas a rela- allows us to differentiate between adolescent
tive independence occurred, allowing factors students with high academic self-concept levels
to distinguish from one another (Palacios & from those with low academic self-concept le-
Zabala, 2007). vels. Having instruments that allow us to assess
Likewise, the use of a global dimension met academic self-concept more thoroughly is of the
the objective of inclusive integration of facets utmost importance since this construct regulates
determining academic self-concept, thus over- cognitive/motivational strategies involved in
122 Journal of Behavior, Health & Social Issues vol. 5 num. 2 NOV-2013 / APR-2014
Academic Self Concept scale
Journal of Behavior, Health & Social Issues vol. 5 num. 2 NOV-2013 / APR-2014 123
Ordaz-Villegas, Acle-Tomasini & Reyes-Lagunes
124 Journal of Behavior, Health & Social Issues vol. 5 num. 2 NOV-2013 / APR-2014
Academic Self Concept scale
Appendix A.
Examples:
Statement Never Sometimes Usually Very often Always
1.I find it easy to play a key role in X
my class organization.
2.I can make friends easily X
¡ ¡ LET US BEGIN ! !
Journal of Behavior, Health & Social Issues vol. 5 num. 2 NOV-2013 / APR-2014 125
Ordaz-Villegas, Acle-Tomasini & Reyes-Lagunes
126 Journal of Behavior, Health & Social Issues vol. 5 num. 2 NOV-2013 / APR-2014
Academic Self Concept scale
Identification sheet
Name
Sex
Age
Place of residence
Siblings
Birth order
Do you have a payed job? (Yes/No)
Do you live in an owned house?
Do you participate in another activity apart from
school?
What activity?
School
Current semester
Leadership ( )
Mathematics ( )
Drawing ( )
Oral language ( )
Memory ( )
Sports ( )
Social relationships ( )
Music ( )
Journal of Behavior, Health & Social Issues vol. 5 num. 2 NOV-2013 / APR-2014 127
Ordaz-Villegas, Acle-Tomasini & Reyes-Lagunes
A continuación se listan una serie de enunciados, en cada uno de ellos se describe una situación
que puede coincidir en cierta medida con lo que tú haces o sientes. Marca con una “X” la opción
que mejor represente que tan frecuente realizas la actividad descrita.
Es importante que sepas que este cuestionario es completamente independiente de tus mate-
rias escolares, que no hay opciones correctas ni incorrectas, solo deseo saber la frecuencia con
que realizas ciertas actividades. La información que tu brindes será estrictamente confidencial. De
antemano gracias.
Ejemplos:
Afirmación Nunca A veces Por lo Regular Muchas Veces Siempre
1. Me resulta fácil organizar a
X
mi grupo
2. Puedo hacer amigos
X
fácilmente
¡ ¡ COMENZAMOS ! !
Por lo Muchas
Afirmación Nunca A veces Regular Veces Siempre
128 Journal of Behavior, Health & Social Issues vol. 5 num. 2 NOV-2013 / APR-2014
Academic Self Concept scale
13. Me esfuerzo para que mis trabajos sean los mejores de la clase
17. Me gusta realizar mis tareas usando mis ideas y mis formas
Journal of Behavior, Health & Social Issues vol. 5 num. 2 NOV-2013 / APR-2014 129
Ordaz-Villegas, Acle-Tomasini & Reyes-Lagunes
Ficha de identificación
Nombre
Sexo
Edad
Lugar de residencia
Número de hermanos
¿Qué posición de hijo eres?
¿Tienes trabajo remunerado? (Si/No)
¿Vives en casa propia?
¿Realizas alguna otra actividad además de la escuela?
¿Cuál?
Escuela
¿Qué semestre cursas?
Promedio actual
Promedio de la secundaria
Promedio de la primaria
Liderazgo ( )
Matemáticas ( )
Dibujo ( )
Lenguaje oral ( )
Memoria ( )
Deporte ( )
Relaciones sociales ( )
Música ( )
130 Journal of Behavior, Health & Social Issues vol. 5 num. 2 NOV-2013 / APR-2014