Breaking the double-edged sword of effort/trying hard: Developmental equilibrium and longitudinal relations among effort, achievement, and academic self-concept.
Dev Psychol
; 52(8): 1273-90, 2016 08.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-27455188
ABSTRACT
Ever since the classic research of Nicholls (1976) and others, effort has been recognized as a double-edged sword while it might enhance achievement, it undermines academic self-concept (ASC). However, there has not been a thorough evaluation of the longitudinal reciprocal effects of effort, ASC, and achievement, in the context of modern self-concept theory and statistical methodology. Nor have there been developmental equilibrium tests of whether these effects are consistent across the potentially volatile early-to-middle adolescence. Hence, focusing on mathematics, we evaluate reciprocal effects models (REMs) over the first 4 years of secondary school (grades 5-8), relating effort, achievement (test scores and school grades), ASC, and ASC × Effort interactions for a representative sample of 3,144 German students (Mage = 11.75 years at Wave 1). ASC, effort, and achievement were positively correlated at each wave, and there was a clear pattern of positive reciprocal positive effects among ASC, test scores, and school grades-each contributing to the other, after controlling for the prior effects of all others. There was an asymmetrical pattern of effects for effort that is consistent with the double-edged sword premise prior school grades had positive effects on subsequent effort, but prior effort had nonsignificant or negative effects on subsequent grades and ASC. However, on the basis of a synergistic application of new theory and methodology, we predicted and found a significant ASC × Effort interaction, such that prior effort had more positive effects on subsequent ASC and school grades when prior ASC was high-thus providing a key to breaking the double-edged sword. (PsycINFO Database Record
Texto completo:
1
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Autoimagem
/
Logro
/
Desenvolvimento Infantil
/
Conceitos Matemáticos
Tipo de estudo:
Observational_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limite:
Child
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
País/Região como assunto:
Europa
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Dev Psychol
Ano de publicação:
2016
Tipo de documento:
Article