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This study examined the development of math self-concept during the transition to secondary school comparatively among high-ability and average-ability students in a largescale longitudinal sample in Flanders, Belgium (N = 5740 students; 49.5% males). Latent change models revealed that high-ability students, although maintaining higher relative levels of math self-concept, experienced steeper levels of math self-concept decline in the transition to secondary school than their average-ability peers, according to students' reports. Cognitive ability, measured with standardized intelligence tests, predicted steeper math self-concept decline within both ability groups, and in both groups stronger math self-concept decline was associated with (a) higher levels of teacher-reported underachievement in Grade 7 (r 2 = 0.13, p <.001), (b) lower standardized math achievement in Grade 11 (r 2 = 0.49, p <.001), (c) lower student-reported school well-being in Grade 7 (r 2 = 0.13, p <.001) and Grade 11 (r 2 = 0.04, p <.001), and (d) higher risk of grade repetition by the end of secondary school (r 2 = 0.11, p <.001). These findings establish that the level of math self-concept and the degree in decline in math self-concept can have negative implications for educational outcomes, even when math self-concept level remains high relative to peers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students whose math self-concept is threatened in stressful classroom situations activate self-defense mechanisms to forget those experiences, which jeopardize future learning and knowledge retention. External cues to forget might be critical to activate these self-defense mechanisms. We tested this idea by employing a directed-forgetting paradigm using math-related materials. Participants were presented with math problems to enhance anxiety, followed by a list of math-related words with instructions to either remember or forget those words. All participants were then asked to remember a second math list. We predicted that people most vulnerable to experiencing threat—those with high math anxiety and high math self-concept—would have the internal motivation to most effectively carry out the forgetting instructions. Participants with high math anxiety and high math self-concept had a greater forgetting score than other participants. These findings are consistent with a motivated forgetting account and suggest that educational materials are susceptible to forgetting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This three-wave, longitudinal study explored the math self-concept of German preschool children ( N = 420) with respect to its differentiation into competence and affect components, cross-sectional and longitudinal relations to early math achievement, and invariance across gender. Findings demonstrated that preschool children's math self-concept can be separated into competence and affect components, with the competence component displaying higher relations to early math achievement than the affect component. The competence component but not the affect component was found to be related to prior math achievement, providing evidence of the skill-development model of self-concept–achievement relations in preschool years. Boys and girls demonstrated similar self-concept–achievement relations and mean levels in the competence and affect components of math self-concept. Given so far little research on self-concept in preschool children, this study offers important insights and expands current knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examined the reciprocal relationships between self-concept and anxiety in mathematics. A sample of 495 grade 7 students (51% girls) completed self-report measures assessing self-concept and anxiety three times in a school year. Structural equation modeling was used to test a cross-lagged panel model of reciprocal effects between math self-concept and math anxiety. The analysis showed a reciprocal relationship between self-concept and anxiety in math (i.e., higher self-concept leads to lower anxiety, which in turn, leads to higher self-concept). However, the magnitude of the path from anxiety to self-concept is almost half of that from self-concept to anxiety. Overall, the results provide empirical support for the theoretical notion that math self-concept and math anxiety are reciprocally related. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The immigrant paradox is the phenomenon where recent immigrants have better outcomes than individuals from native-born families. Although limited past research has shown the paradox to exist for math self-concept, neither its exact nature nor a theoretical explanation for its existence have been reported. Using Australian cohort data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2003 (N = 12,551) and 2012 (N = 14,481), we first establish that immigrant students have higher math self-concepts than native students, controlling for gender and absolute parental socioeconomic status (SES), and show that it is similar to—albeit weaker than—the expectation-achievement gap. We then provide an SES-of-origin-country hypothesis as a contextual explanation for this effect; we show that the immigrant paradox for both math self-concept and educational expectations substantially reduces when accounting for parents' SES relative to their country-of-origin. Our findings suggest that the paradox for math self-concept and educational expectations may partly result from immigrant parents' socioeconomic advantage in their home countries. • We test the immigrant paradox for math self-concept in two Australian PISA cohorts. • Immigrants had higher math self-concepts than native students, controlling for parental SES. • This paradox was similar to, but smaller than, the expectation-achievement gap. • The SES of parents' origin country helped explain both the paradox and the gap. • This country-of-origin contextual effect was robust to sensitivity analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]