Multiple Dimensions of Adolescent Self-Concept

Abstract

This study was designed to determine (a) age and gender variations in the multiple areas of self-concept, and (b) relations between these dimensions of self-concept and scholastic measures. The samples comprised 274 students attending three co-educational high schools in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, South Africa. Although a few statistically significant effects of age and gender on global and domainspecific self-concepts were found, the differences appeared to be of little qualitative significance. The size and pattern of relations with scholastic measures was weak. However, further investigations from an African context are necessary to provide additional support for the claim that self-concepts are minimally influenced by human conditions such as age and gender and that relationships between various facets of self-concept and measures of academic achievement are weak.