STARTS model shows a positive effect of prior achievement on subsequent self-concept but no effect of prior self-concept on subsequent achievement¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2025 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? In the STARTS model, prior within-individual achievement positively predicted subsequent within-individual self-concept, while prior self-concept had no effect on subsequent achievement. → Kimmo Sorjonen 2025

Evidence¶

Kimmo Sorjonen 2025¶

Kimmo Sorjonen, Bo Melin, Gustav Nilsonne. (2025). Inconclusive Evidence for a Prospective Effect of Academic Self-Concept on Achievement: A Simulated Reanalysis and Comment on Marsh et al. (2024). Educational Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-025-10008-4

q2 · i? · associational · r2

STARTS model fitted on the simulated PALMA-like data (good fit: χ2 = 317, DF = 44, CFI = 0.989, RMSEA = 0.042). Achievement effect b = 0.090 [0.031; 0.149], p = 0.003; self-concept effect b = −0.004 [−0.053; 0.046], p = 0.880 — no statistically significant effect; equivalence was not tested.

"prior within-individual achievement had a positive effect on subsequent within-individual self-concept when adjusting for prior within-individual self-concept (b = 0.090 [0.031; 0.149], p = 0.003). However, contrary to the self enhancement and reciprocal effects models, prior within-individual self-concept had no effect on subsequent within-individual achievement"

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Academic Self-Concept — outcome: instruction changes it

Related Claims¶

• Additional modified models suggest a positive effect of change in achievement on contemporaneous change in self-concept — related
• LCSM on the same simulated PALMA-like data shows negative cross-lagged effects, contradicting the reciprocal effects model — reports the opposite
• RI-CLPM on simulated PALMA-like data shows positive reciprocal cross-lagged effects between within-individual math achievement and self-concept — reports the opposite
• Meta-analyses show prior academic self-concept predicts subsequent achievement, controlling prior achievement — reports the opposite
• Huang's meta-analysis of 39 independent samples reported average cross-lagged correlations between self-concept and achievement of roughly .19 to .27 — related
• A meta-analysis of 68 longitudinal studies found prior achievement predicted subsequent self-concept and prior self-concept predicted subsequent achievement — reports the opposite
• Academic self-concept predicts lagged (across-semester) changes in academic skills in both mathematics and French — reports the opposite
• Starting contemporaneous effects on wave 2 in the STARTS model yields positive contemporaneous effects of achievement on academic self-concept and positive lagged effects of self-concept on achievement — reports the opposite