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Dimensional comparison theory (DCT; Möller & Marsh, 2013) assumes that students compare their academic achievement intraindividually across domains to form domain-specific self-concepts. Upward dimensional comparisons are believed to lead to lower self-concepts in the worse-off domain, while downward dimensional comparisons should lead to higher self-concepts in the better-off domain. Furthermore, DCT assumes the net effect of upward and downward dimensional comparisons to be beneficial to the self. To test these assumptions, 3 experiments and 2 field studies were conducted investigating the relative effects of upward and downward dimensional comparisons as well as their net effect. In Studies 1 (N = 149), 2 (N = 150) and 3 (N = 300), participants were asked to infer self-concepts of fictitious students after receiving experimentally manipulated information about their achievements in 2 domains, whereas participants in Studies 4 (N = 2,268) and 5 (N = 20,662) assessed their own self-concepts in German and mathematics. In all studies, downward dimensional comparisons resulted in higher self-concepts, whereas upward dimensional comparisons led to lower self-concepts. The net effect of dimensional comparisons was always found to be not statistically different from zero. The findings therefore support the central prediction of DCT on the discreteness of the effects of upward and downward dimensional comparisons, yet do not support the assumed positivity of their net effect. Furthermore, results indicate the effect patterns to be rather universal as they were stable across different samples, domains, achievement situations, research designs, and types of assessment.

In this study, we analyzed how secondary school tracking relates to students' self-beliefs (i.e., their academic self-concepts in different domains and their beliefs regarding their labor market chances) and school disengagement during a time period that has received little attention in educational psychological research on tracking: when students are at the end of schooling and on the verge of entering the labor market. In doing so, we disentangled 2 distinguishing features of tracking: tracks as social contexts (operationalized via track level and the mean achievement of students' schoolmates) and tracks as pathways to different future opportunities (operationalized via educational certificates). Using questionnaire, achievement, and administrative school data from 2,155 students from 29 low-track schools, 23 intermediate-track schools, and 35 comprehensive schools in Berlin, Germany, we found educational certificates to be the most important factor shaping students' self-beliefs and school disengagement. Irrespective of their individual achievement, their schoolmates' achievement, and their track level, students who received the intermediate school-leaving certificate had higher academic self-concepts, believed that their certificate would give them better chances of success in the labor market, and were less disengaged from school than students who received the low school-leaving certificate. In contrast, students' track level did not serve as a predictor for the outcomes considered. The achievement of students' schoolmates (i.e., the big-fish-little-pond effect) was only relevant for students' academic self-concepts and not for students' self-beliefs regarding labor market entry or their school disengagement.

We quantify the volume transport and watermass transformation rates of the global overturning circulation using the Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean version 4 release 4 (ECCOv4r4) reanalysis product. The ECCO solution shows large rates of intercell exchange between the mid‐depth and abyssal cells, consistent with other recent inferences. About 10 Sv of North Atlantic deep water enters the abyssal cell in the Southern Ocean and is balanced by a similar amount of apparrent diapycnal upwelling in the Indo‐Pacific. However, much of the upwelling in ECCO's deep ocean is not associated with irreversible watermass transformations, as typically assumed in theoretical models. Instead, a dominant portion of the abyssal circulation in ECCO is associated with isopycnal volume tendencies, reflecting a deep ocean in a state of change and a circulation in which transient tendencies play a leading role in the watermass budget. These volume tendencies are particularly prominent in the Indo‐Pacific, where ECCO depicts a cooling and densifying deep ocean with relatively little mixing‐driven upwelling, in disagreement with recent observations of deep Indo‐Pacific warming trends. Although abyssal ocean observations are insufficient to exclude the trends modeled by ECCO, we note that ECCO's parameterized diapycnal mixing in the abyssal ocean is much smaller than observational studies suggest and may lead to an under‐representation of Antarctic Bottom Water consumption in the abyssal ocean. Whether or not ECCO's tendencies are realistic, they are a key part of its abyssal circulation and hence need to be taken into consideration when interpreting the ECCO solution. Plain Language Summary: We analyze results taken from the Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean (ECCO) state estimate in order to investigate the internal structure and watermass budget of the global ocean's large‐scale circulation. The ECCO solution supports the modern view of an interconnected global ocean with substantial exchange between the overturning circulation of the Atlantic and that of the Indo‐Pacific via the Southern Ocean. However, our investigation also reveals that the density structure of much of the deep ocean in the ECCO product is in a state of change, and that these changes play a key role in the watermass budget of the circulation. These results reveal disagreement between the model's representation of the deep ocean and the prevailing theoretical depictions of the ocean's large‐scale circulation, which generally assume that the circulation is in a steady state. Disagreement between ECCO's deep ocean mixing rates and independent estimates indicate that the trends in ECCO may be biased, but deep ocean observations are insufficient to conclusively infer the true trends. Key Points: The meridional overturning circulation (MOC) in Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean version 4 release 4 (ECCOv4r4) exhibits substantial linkage between the mid‐depth and abyssal cellsTransient isopycnal volume change plays a key role in the watermass budget of the MOC in ECCOECCO's transient interior state must be taken into account when interpreting its climatological state [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic self-concept has been conceptualized as a multidimensional and hierarchical construct. Previous research has mostly focused on its multidimensionality, distinguishing between verbal and mathematical self-concept domains, and only a few studies have examined the factorial structure within specific self-concept domains. The present study aims to extend the scarce evidence of the simultaneous operation of multidimensionality and hierarchy within language self-concepts. Skill-specific (i.e., reading, listening, speaking, and writing) and global self-concept measures for German as students' native language and English and French as students' foreign languages were administered to a sample of 4,257 ninth-grade German students. Confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated better levels of fit for multidimensional models with highly correlated but separate factors for each skill-specific self-concept compared to unidimensional models. The skill-specific facets could be aggregated into a higher order factor for each language, demonstrating a hierarchical structure. Differential gender effects on the various skill-specific self-concept facets provided further evidence of the multidimensional nature of language self-concepts, although differential relations to skill-specific achievement measures were not found. The high correlation between the higher order and global self-concept factors as well as similar gender effects and relations to achievement supported the notion of the similarity of both constructs. A comparable pattern of results emerged across the 3 languages, but detailed inspection indicated that multidimensionality seems to be more pronounced in the native language domain (German). The findings of the study are discussed regarding their implications for the assessment of language self-concepts and future research on the structure of language self-concepts.

Students evaluate their achievement in a specific domain in relation to their achievement in other domains and form their self-concepts accordingly. These comparison processes have been termed "dimensional comparisons" and shown to be an important source of academic self-concepts in addition to social and temporal comparisons. Research on the internal/external frame of reference model (I/E model) has frequently found negative effects of students' achievement on their academic self-concept between different scholastic domains (mathematics and the language of instruction) that are interpreted as contrast effects of dimensional comparisons. There is mixed evidence with regard to whether negative contrast effects or positive assimilation effects occur when students compare their achievement in domains that are more similar. In this study, we extended the original I/E model with 3 science domains (biology, chemistry, and physics). Using structural equation modeling, we analyzed the domain-specific self-concepts, grades, and test scores of a representative sample of 9th-grade students in Germany (N = 20,050) across 5 domains. Mathematics, physics, and chemistry showed contrast effects to German, whereas small assimilation effects were found between mathematics, physics, and chemistry. This effect pattern was present for both grades and test scores. Achievement in mathematics and the language of instruction affected self-concepts in the sciences, whereas achievement in the sciences had no effect on self-concepts in other subjects. The results support the hypotheses derived from dimensional comparison theory that both contrast and assimilation effects can result from dimensional comparisons and that the 3 science subjects are affected differentially by these comparisons.