SELF-ESTEEM AND SCHOOL PERFORMANCE
ROSALYN A. RUBIN, JEANNE DORLE, AND SUSANNE SANDIDGE
Umverszty
of
Minnesota
Self-esteem was found to have a moderate relationship with, but not
a
strong
independent effect on, school achievement and behavior for
a
sample of
530
twelve-year-olds. From multiple correlation coefficients predicting school
outcomes from measures of socioeconomic status,
I&,
and self-esteem, it
was
concluded that much of the relationship between self-esteem and school
performance for the general school population can best be explained
as
reflec-
ting common underlying factors such as ability and background.
It
is widely accepted that a student must “believe in himself’’ in order to
perform confidently and successfully in school.
It
is assumed that high self-esteem
promotes happiness, social acceptance, and achievement, whereas low self-esteem
contributes to failure, partly in the manner of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Many educators believe that improved self-esteem will lead not only to greater
happiness, but also to greater academic achievement (see Brookover,
1964;
Purkey,
1970).
However, it should be noted that this has nowhere been convincingly demon-
strated. Before embarking
on
intervention programs aimed at improving self-
concept as an integral step in improving various aspects of school performance,
it is necessary to determine the extent to which self-esteem is in fact associated
with relevant outcome variables.
The majority of reported studies which have examined relationships between
measures of self-esteem and measures of school achievement have found significant
correlations ranging from moderate
(I‘
=
.30
to
.45)
(e.g., Brookover,
1964;
Cooper-
smith,
1959, 1967;
Richmond
&
Ualton,
1973;
Trowbridge,
1970)
to low
(I’
<
.25)
(Kunce, Getsinger,
&
Miller,
1972;
Nelson,
1970;
Nicholls,
1967),
although some
studies have failed to find any significant relationships between these variables
(Butcher,
1967;
Williams,
1973).
The purpose of the present investigation was to examine the relationship
between self-esteem, as measured by the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory (SEI),
and both educational achievement and school behavior. Measures of intelligence
and socioeconomic status also were employed to examine the extent to which
obtained relationships between self-esteem and school performance variables were
independent
of
social class and intelligence.
METHOD
Su
b,jects
The
530
subjects in this investigation were drawn from among the
1,559
participants in the Educational Follow-up Study (EFS) (Balow, Anderson, Rey-
nolds,
&
Rubin, Note
l),
a prospective longitudinal investigation of the educational
:md behavioral outconies associated with perinatal and early childhood conditions
‘The research reported herein was performed pursuant to a grant (OEG-32-33-0402-6021)
from
the National Institute of Education, Department
of
Health, Education, and Welfare. Ad-
ditional data were made available through the cooperation of the University
of
Minnesota section
of the Collaborative Project supported
by
the National Iiistitute
of
Neurological Diseases and Stroke
(Public Health Grant PH-43-68-9). This paper in part was presented at the annual meeting of
the American Educational Research Association, New York, April, 1977.
Requests for reprints should be sent to Rosalyn A. Rubin, Dept. of Psychoeducational Studies,
College
of
Ediication, University
of
Minnesota,
5
Pattee Hall, Minneapolis, MN
55455.
503