Me, My Track and Society: How Track Identification Affects the Relationship between General Self‐Esteem and Perceived Public Track Status

Abstract

Prior research has demonstrated the adverse effects of ability grouping (here tracking) on a broad range of outcomes for secondary school students, including their self‐esteem. A recent line of study focuses on the importance of track identities in understanding how ability grouping impacts students. This study builds on these findings by investigating the role of public track regard and chauvinistic track identification on the relationship between track membership and general self‐esteem. Multilevel modeling of school survey data collected from 4,540 third‐year high school students from 64 schools in Belgium shows that students' public track regard correlates positively with their general self‐esteem. In addition, while students' chauvinistic track identification does not protect against societal judgment, it does associate with general self‐esteem. The type of chauvinism, either social or cognitive, that correlates with self‐esteem is track‐dependent. The conclusions discuss the implications of these findings for research and social policy.