The Role of Teachers' Expectations in the Association between Children's SES and Performance in Kindergarten: A Moderated Mediation Analysis

This study examines the role of teachers' expectations in the association between children's socio-economic background and achievement outcomes. Furthermore, the role of children's ethnicity in moderating this mediated relation is investigated. In the present study, 3,948 children from kindergarten are examined. Data are analysed by means of structural equation modeling. First, results show that teachers' expectations mediate the relation between children's SES and their later language and math achievement, after controlling for children's ethnicity, prior achievement and gender. This result indicates that teachers may exacerbate individual differences between children. Second, children's ethnicity moderates the mediation effect of teachers' expectations with respect to math outcomes. The role of teachers' expectations in mediating the relation between SES and math outcomes is stronger for majority children than for minority children

Competence and affect dimensions of self-concept among higher education students: a factorial validation study of an academic subject-specific self-concept

A hierarchical and multi-dimensional model of self-concept is well-validated. Despite increasing evidence that self-concept comprises two latent factors related to perceptions of ‘competence’ and ‘affect’, many researchers continue to examine the impact of a unitary self-concept on educational outcomes. This study explores evidence for a 2-factor academic subject-specific self-concept factor structure and examines the association between these factors with self-efficacy in a sample of higher education students. Participants from two studies (N = 314; N = 475) were enrolled in introductory psychology courses. Exploratory (EFA) and confirmatory (CFA) factor analysis examined and confirmed the factor structure of two oblique self-concept factors, reflecting affect and competence, in both studies. Temporal invariance of the 2-factor model was supported. Despite a substantial literature that discriminates between self-concept and self-efficacy, self-efficacy appears to be itself a facet of competency self-concept