The Shavelson model revisited: Testing for the structure of academic self-concept across pre-, early, and late adolescents

Focusing on the academic component of the Shavelson Model, the purposes of the study were fourfold: (a) to test for the multidimensionality of academic self-concept (SC); (b) to test that academic SC is hierarchically structured; (c) to test that predictive influence flows upward from actual behavior (e.g., academic performance) at the base of the model to general SC at its apex; and (d) to investigate the extent to which academic SC demonstrates increasing differentiation with age. Based on the analysis of covariance structures, and using data from 3rd, 7th, and 11th graders, findings (a) substantiated the multidimensionality of academic SC but yielded no support for increasing differentiation across age, (b) determined minor deterioration of hierarchical structure for early and late adolescents but demonstrated no pattern of progressive weakening structure across age, and (c) revealed direction of predictive flow, whether from academic achievement to general SC, or the reverse, to yield equally well-fitting models for each age group. Questions bearing on academic SC structure across age are addressed, and implications for the reliability of teacher ratings of academic performance are raised.