Personal Conceptions of Competence and Academic Achievement: Longitudinal Study in Portuguese Secondary School

Abstract Do personal conceptions of competence (PCC) influence academic achievement and/or academic achievement influences PCC? In this context we sought to examine the relationship between PCC (personal conceptions of intelligence, causal attributions, self-concept, self-efficacy and emotional competence) and academic achievement throughout secondary school in Portugal. With this aim, the Composite Questionnaire of Perceived Competence (162 items) was administered to a sample of 433 students, 52.8% girls, aged between 14 and 18 years (M=15.3; SD=.63), in a three-wave longitudinal design separated by a gap of one year. Overall, the results evidenced reciprocal relationships: the achievement in the first year influenced PCC in the following year and self-concept and self-efficacy were the main predictors of academic achievement.

摘要 个人能力观念（Personal Conceptions of Competence, PCC）是否会影响学业成绩，抑或学业成绩反向作用于PCC？在此研究背景下，本研究旨在探讨葡萄牙中学阶段PCC与学业成绩之间的关联，其中PCC涵盖个人智力观念、因果归因、自我概念、自我效能感以及情绪胜任力。为达成该研究目标，本研究向433名学生施测了感知能力复合问卷（Composite Questionnaire of Perceived Competence，共162个条目）。该样本中女生占比52.8%，年龄介于14至18岁之间（平均年龄M=15.3，标准差SD=0.63），并采用间隔一年的三波纵向研究设计。整体而言，研究结果证实二者存在互惠关系：首学年的学业成绩会对次年的PCC产生影响，而自我概念与自我效能感则是学业成绩的主要预测因子。