Domain-specific self-concepts of elementary school children related to placement or nonplacement in a gifted program
Date
1987
Authors
Phillips, Lynne Barbara Wiegert
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Abstract
The purpose of the study was two-fold: (a) to describe and compare the characteristics of the differentiated self-concept of three different ability groups of children (considering also differences by gender and grade level) with particular emphasis on the academic domain and (b) to explore the psychometric characteristics of the self-worth system as a test of some aspects of Harter's cognitive developmental theory about the determinants of self-worth in children in late childhood (Grades 5, 6, and 7).
The subjects (~ = 170) were upper-elementary children from schools in British Columbia. A variety of measures obtained from average children, gifted children, and excluded children (assessed for a gifted program but not accepted) were compared in five domains: scholastic, athletic, physical appearance, behavioral conduct, and social acceptance. The Self-Perception Profile for Children (Harter, 1985) was used to measure the children's perceptions of competence and evaluations of importance. In addition, a questionnaire was written for this study to collect reports of reference groups used by the three ability groups in making social comparisons of competence.
The results suggest that the higher global self-esteem of gifted and excluded children revealed in this study is determined by judgements of superior performance in specific domains (scholastic competence and behavioral conduct), not from a global sense of superiority. Gifted and excluded children appear to be psychometrically similar to average children in areas where superior intellectual ability is not salient (social acceptance by peers and physical appearance). All three groups of children reported general agreement about the degree of importance of the five domains in their lives with one notable exception, athletics. The gender stereotypes about boys' greater ego-involvement in athletics seem to be upheld, especially for average and excluded boys, but gifted boys and all three ability levels of girls reported lower scores in both competence and importance ratings for athletics. None of the analyses by grade level revealed significant differences. Moderate support was demonstrated for Harter's theory that global self-worth can be predicted from the size of the discrepancy between judgements about competence and importance. Gifted children apparently chose average children as a reference group t o enhance their sense of self-worth in the scholastic domain, but excluded children chose the gifted children as a reference group to achieve cognitive clarity on the relative merits of their performance in the classroom.