Journal
PERSONALITY AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
Volume 45, Issue 6, Pages 559-564Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2008.06.017
Keywords
general self-esteem; academic self-esteem; hierarchical self-concept; academic achievement; defensive pessimism; self-protective enhancement
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The study demonstrates on a nationally representative sample of Estonian students and university applicants (N = 4572) that although self-reported academic self-esteem is a strong and accurate predictor of school achievement, additionally rather low, not high, general self-esteem is a significant predictor of superior school performance when academic self-esteem and multicollinearity is controlled for. Two compensatory mechanisms-defensive pessimism and self-protective enhancement-may explain the paradox of low self-esteem: academically successful students have a more critical view of themselves and students with more modest academic abilities compensate for their academic under-achievement by elevating their general self-esteem. Children start to use self-protective enhancement but from age 12 to 14 they also start using defensive pessimism to protect themselves from the consequences of failure. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
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