Within-school social comparison: How students perceive the standing of their class predicts academic self-concept.
Abstract
Results from prior research indicate that a student's academic self-concept is negatively influenced by the achievement of others in his or her school (a frame of reference effect) and that this negative frame of reference effect is not or only slightly reduced by the quality, standing, or prestige of the track or school attended (a effect). Going beyond prior studies, the present research used both between-school and within-school approaches to investigate frame of reference and reflected glory effects in education, incorporating students' own perceptions of the standing of their school and class. Multilevel analyses were performed with data from 3 large-scale assessments with 4,810, 1,502, and 4,247 students, respectively. Findings from all 3 studies showed that, given comparable individual achievement, placement in high-achieving learning groups was associated with comparatively low academic self-concepts. However, students' academic self-concept was not merely a reflection of their relative position within the class but also substantively associated with their individual and shared perceptions of the class's standing. Moreover, the negative effects of being placed in high-achieving learning groups were weaker for high-achieving students. Overall, the studies support both educational and social psychology theorizing on social comparison.
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Initial attempts to study mediating processes in longitudinal designs yielded mixed findings with regards to the role of effort in the relationship between academic self-concept and academic achievement.
“To our knowledge, initial attempts to study mediating processes in longitudinal designs (Marsh et al., 2016;Pinxten et al., 2014;Trautwein et al., 2009) yielded mixed findings with regards to the role of effort in the relationship between ASC and academic achievement.”
From Motivation-Achievement Cycles in Learning: a Literature Review and Research Agenda (2022) · cites this paper as Trautwein et al., 2009
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- Authors
- Trautwein, U., Lüdtke, O., Marsh, H. W., & Nagy, G.
- Affiliations
- Max Planck Society (DE)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Venue
- Journal of Educational Psychology
- Published
- 2009-11
- Volume
- 101
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 853-866
- ISSN
- 0022-0663 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-2176
- OpenAlex
- W2033643606
- Cited by
- 174
- References
- 71
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 20 · 2017: 13 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 16 · 2014: 16 · 2013: 12 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 8.47
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Educational Psychology (publishedVersion)
- Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (submittedVersion)
- Max Planck Digital Library (submittedVersion)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Education, Achievement, and Giftedness
- Social Sciences › Education › School Choice and Performance
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Innovative Teaching and Learning Methods
- Keywords
- academic self-concept, class standing, learning groups, high-achieving students, school prestige
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