Academic achievement and self-concept in secondary school students by gender

Based on social cognitive theory, the purpose of this research is to identify the gender differences in academic performance and selfconcept in a sample of Spanish students of secondary. Also, the role of self-concept as predictor of academic performance is analyzed. For this, 406 students (190 female and 215 male) participated in this research and the questionnaire used to measure self-concept was the AF5. Our results show gender differences in favour of girls in the subject: Spanish Language and Literature and also marginal differences in favour of girls in other subject: Foreign Language. Furthermore, students have got a positive self-concept, not only in general but also in the academic, social, emotional, family and physical aspects. Finally, a path analyses showed that academic, familiar and physical self-concept, and the age of students had a great influence on the academic performance. This search also showed the great importance of family and physical self-concept to determinate the academic self-concept.