Well-Being and Perceived Competence in School Children from 1 to 9 Class

Abstract

Motivational aspects in reading, math, science and physical education are often studied on whole samples and not grouped into different classes. In our study we wish to investigate cross-sectional data across classes. Our research question wishes to investigate what class differences are there in school subject-based well-being and perceived competence? A total of 378 Icelandic pupils in classes 1–9 did answer a survey with nine items, focusing on how are you feeling at school, how do you like and how are you doing in reading, math, science and physical education. There were 163 girls (43%), and 202 boys (53%) ranging from 6 to 15 years of age (M = 10.86, SD = 2.57). The findings, for the whole sample, indicate that girls tend to like reading more than boys do. Additionally, girls feel that they are better in science compared to boys, while boys like physical education more than girls. In terms of classes, multiple items, including reading, math and science, indicated class differences, where higher classes (i.e., eighth and ninth class) tend to have lower average scores in how much they liked a certain topic, and how competent they felt. It is also of great interest that the correlation between ‘how do you like’ and ‘how are you doing’ are 0.53, 0.71, 0.66 and 0.66 for reading, math, science and physical activity, respectively. Well-being and perceived competence in all subjects correlate with each other, and well-being at school. This shows the importance of seeing the school as a holistic system, where experiences related to individual subjects coincide with the overall experience (and vice versa). The results are discussed in relation to self-perception, motivation and practice.