Differences in adolescents' self-concept as a function of academic level, ethnicity, and gender

The relations of dimensions of self-concept of adolescents with their academic level, ethnicity, and gender were investigated. A self-concept inventory assessing 11 aspects of self-concept was administered to a sample of 1,140 eighth-grade students stratified with regard to academic level (regular class, educationally marginal, learning handicapped), ethnicity (white, black, and Hispanic), and gender. Results showed that regular class students had higher levels of self-concept on most scales than did students who were educationally marginal or learning handicapped; the latter two groups showed few differences. Black students had higher self-concept ratings than did white and Hispanic students on most scales. An interaction on two academically related dimensions of self-concept revealed that white students who were educationally marginal had the lowest level of academic and verbal self-concept. Implications of the results for theories of self-concept formation were discussed.