Optimism, self-efficiency and self-concept: Why some students expect greater academic success than others?

Abstract

The purpose of our research was to examine the relation between academic success and constructs: optimism, self-efficiency, and self-concept. We also wanted to examine how this relation reflects in previous and future marks of fourth-grade highschool students. We predicted that students with higher academic success in specific fields will also have higher specific self-concept, which reflects characteristic competence. We also predicted that more optimistic, more self-efficient students and students with higher self-concept will set up higher future goals, because they see desired goals as attainable and are persistent in reaching their goals. One-hundred students filled in the Self-Description Questionnire III (SDQIII), the Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R), the Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE), and stated marks of their previous grade, present marks (Slovenian language, mathematics, and foreign language) and anticipated marks at graduation. The results confirmed our expectations: Students with higher marks on different subjects in previous grade also had higher specific self-concept, and more optimistic and self-efficient students with higher self-concept set up higher future goals.

Keywords

• self-concept
• self-efficacy
• optimism
• school performance
• students