Abstract:

The first goal of this study was to determine whether biased self-evaluation of scholastic competence was positively associated with biased self-evaluation of social competence. The second goal was to determine whether biased self-evaluation of competence in each domain measured at Time-1 predicted variables related to functioning in these domains two years later. The sample comprised 464 children (247 girls) whose mean age at Time 1 was 10 years and 4 months (SD = 6.94 months), one of their parents and their teachers. Children’s bias of self-evaluation competence in both the school and the social domain was assessed two years prior their self-report of outcomes related to their school (motivation, sensitivity to errors and control beliefs over school results) and social (feeling of acceptance by peers and sense of class belonging) functioning. Parents and teachers reports of outcomes related to children’s school (motivation and self-regulation) and social (rejection by peers) functioning were collected that same year. Regarding children’s self-report, results of hierarchical regression analyses controlling for gender show that the more positive their evaluation of competence in the school domain, the higher they reported motivation (β = .19, < .001) and sense of control over their academic results (β = .18, < .001). Their bias in the social domain was unrelated to these variables. However, students’ bias in both domains was similarly related to their sensitivity to errors (β = - .10, < .01): the more negative the bias, the higher was the students’ sensitivity to making errors. With regard to social functioning, feeling of acceptance by peers (β = .31, < .001) and sense of class belonging (β = .20, < .001) were related to biased self-evaluations of social competence, but unrelated to biases in the school domain. The more positive students evaluated their competence in the social domain, the higher they felt to be accepted by peers and to belong to their class. The analyses conducted on data from parents and teachers reports revealed a very similar pattern. Parents’ and teachers’ judgment of children’s motivation (β = .19, < .001, β = .13, < .005, respectively for parents and teachers) and self-regulation (β = .23, < .001, β = .22, < .001, respectively for parents and teachers), were related to children’s bias in the school domain but not in the social domain. Thus, the more positive was the children’s bias of self-evaluation in the school domain, the more the adults evaluated positively their motivation and self-regulation. However, adults’ judgment of children’s rejection by peers was solely related to children’s bias in the social domain (β = -.20, < .001, β = -.14, < .005). The less positive was the children’s bias of self-evaluation in the social domain, the more the adults perceived them as been rejected by peers. Findings of this study strongly suggest that although children’s bias of self-evaluation of competence in the school and the social domains are somewhat related, their impact is specific to their respective domain of functioning. The larger of the sample, the use of three independent informants and the longitudinal approach give more credit to this conclusions. However, the limited number of outcomes in each domain of children’s functioning calls for some caution. Future studies should more thoroughly examine the impact of self-evaluation bias of competence in different domains.

Keywords:

Biased self-evaluation of academic competence, Biased self-evaluation of social competence, Academic functioning, Social functioning.