Big-Fish-Little-Pond Effects on Language and Math Self-Concept: Moderating Effects of Cognitive Ability

• The big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE) predicts that students who attend schools with higher school-average achievement, perceive their academic abilities to be lower compared to equally abled students who attend schools with lower school-average achievement (Trautwein et al., 2009). Such self-perceptions, like self-concept, are recognized to influence students' daily life, behaviour, and academic achievement, as well as their motivation and well-being (Marsh et al., 2019). This makes it important to examine if and how the relation between school-average achievement and student self-concept is influenced by moderation variables like cognitive ability and gender. The overall purpose of the study was to investigate the BFLPE with language and math self-concept, and to see whether the BFLPE varied as a function of cognitive ability, with language and math self-concept respectively. The study draws on data from the Swedish longitudinal project Evaluation through Follow-up (Utvärdering genom Uppföljning, UGU).

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Self-concept; big-fish-little-pond effect; grade point average (GPA); cognitive ability; multilevel latent variable modelling

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