The big-fish-little-pond effect on academic self-concept

Marsh and Parker (1984) described the big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE), whereby equally able students have lower academic self-concepts in high-ability schools than in low-ability schools. The present investigation, a reanalysis of the Youth in Transition data, supported the generality of the earlier findings and demonstrated new theoretical implications of the BFLPE. First, differences in the academic self-concepts of Black and White students, sometimes assumed to represent response biases, were explicable in terms of the BFLPE. Second, equally able students earned higher grades in lower ability schools. This frame-of-reference effect for grades was distinct from, but contributed to, the BFLPE for academic self-concept. Third, a longitudinal analysis demonstrated that academic self-concept had a direct effect on subsequent school performance beyond the effects of academic ability and prior school performance. About one quarter of this effect could be explained in terms of the BFLPE.

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