The Relation Between Self-Beliefs and Academic Achievement: A Meta-Analytic Review

By J. Valentine, D. DuBois, H. Cooper. 2004

1,265 citations recorded by the source corpus.

There has been extensive debate among scholars and practitioners concerning whether self-beliefs influence academic achievement. To address this question, findings of longitudinal studies investigating the relation between self-beliefs and achievement were synthesized using meta-analysis. Estimated effects are consistent with a small, favorable influence of positive self-beliefs on academic achievement, with an average standardized path or regression coefficient of .08 for self-beliefs as a predictor of later achievement, controlling for initial levels of achievement. Stronger effects of self-beliefs are evident when assessing self-beliefs specific to the academic domain and when measures of self-beliefs and achievement are matched by domain (e.g., same subject area). Under these conditions, the relation of self-beliefs to later achievement meets or exceeds Cohen's (1988) definition of a small effect size.

Subfields: Education, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/bbc29a145f7080e8fea538d8599f6f819f306a28

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In Education

In Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

In Social Psychology

Citations in the corpus

Peer Victimization and Academic Achievement in a Multiethnic Sample: The Role of Perceived Academic Self-Efficacy (2008, background): “That is to say, once minority students detach their perceived self-efficacy from their academic outcomes, these perceptions will have less motivating properties (Marsh et al., 2005; Trautwein et al. 2006; Valentine et al., 2004).”
The Influence of Experiencing Success in Math on Math Anxiety, Perceived Math Competence, and Math Performance. (2013, background): “However, children perceive their competence in different domains, such as sports and academic skills, differently (Harter, 1982; Marsh & Martin, 2011; Valentine et al., 2004).”
College students’ homework and academic achievement: The mediating role of self-regulatory beliefs (2009, result): “The size of the direct effect of students’ selfefficacy for learning beliefs on their course grades was larger than the small effect size reported for self-belief measures in general according to a meta-analysis (Valentine et al. 2004).”
Exploring intrinsic and extrinsic reading motivation among very good and very poor readers (2012, background): “However, whilst intrinsic motivation is generally regarded to be more beneficial for reading (Wigfield and Guthrie 1997 ) and extrinsic motivation detrimental (Valentine, DuBois, and Cooper 2004 ), there is conflicting evidence to suggest that rewards and reinforcements (i.”
Relations of academic and general self-esteem to school achievement (2008, background): “A recent meta-analysis estimated that the effect of the favourable influence of positive self-beliefs on academic achievement is modest and the overall estimated relation is about .08 ( Valentine, Dubois, & Cooper, 2004 ).”
I believe, therefore I achieve (and vice versa): A meta-analytic cross-lagged panel analysis of self-efficacy and academic performance (2018, methodology): “Valentine et al. (2004) used this approach, interpreting the unique self-efficacy → performance effect (β = 0.10, k = 9) as “small but noteworthy” (p. 127).”
Do people's self-views matter? Self-concept and self-esteem in everyday life. (2007, result): “Similarly, Valentine et al. (2004) reported that predictor– outcome associations were stronger when the researchers assessed self-views specific to the academic domain and when measures of self-beliefs and achievement were matched according to subject area.”
Juxtaposing math self-efficacy and self-concept as predictors of long-term achievement outcomes (2014, background): “Given that research on self-efficacy and self-concept typically comes from different theoretical perspectives and focuses on different outcomes, it is not surprising that the Valentine et al. (2004) meta-analysis contained few studies which directly compared both constructs.”