Abstract:

Self-concept is one of the oldest constructs studied over the years in the field of Psychology, as it is of great importance for individual development, regarding beliefs and feelings about oneself. In the school context, academic self-concept is seen as a central component of educational success and is a direct and indirect predictor of academic achievement. In order to contribute to the clarification of the relationships between self-concept and academic achievement, this research aims to characterize the self-concept of primary school students and to explore the relationships between this construct and the academic performance of the participants. 1300 students from the 3rd year of the primary school participated in this study. For this purpose, Susan Harter's Self-Concept Scale for Children and Pre-Adolescents, which is the Portuguese adaptation of Self Perception Profile for Children, was used to evaluate the characteristics or attributes of the self that are consciously perceived and described by the individual through language, distributed in five domains: academic competence, social acceptance, athletic competence, physical appearance, and behaviour. It also evaluates the perception of global self-worth or self-esteem. To evaluate the performance of the participants, a knowledge test, a dictation and a text to identify errors were applied to the students. The results seem to demonstrate that students present, in the various areas analysed, a positive self-concept, also showing the existence of several associations between it and the participants’ sociodemographic variables. The results also pointed out the existence of associations between the participants' self-concept and the errors they identified in a text and the number of errors they gave in a dictation. However, there was no association between the knowledge test applied to students and their self-concept. Results were compared with findings from previous research and reviewed in the context of the current literature on the school psychologist's role. Implications for the field are also provided.

Keywords:

Self-Concept, School performance, Primary school, Education, Students, School success.