Menon, Madhavi

This study explored the extent and nature of academic peer reputation upon children's academic self-concept. Peer and self-perceptions of academic ability and affect were assessed for the subject domains of English, math, and science in order to investigate the generality of peer reputation influences across academic subject areas, and determine the extent to which gender differences might be evident. Gender differences were hypothesized, and peer reputation was expected to have the most influence on academic self-concept in school domains viewed as gender-normative and thus central to self-concept. MR analyses provided some support for this gender-congruency hypothesis, as it was primarily children's academic ability reputation in gender-congruent areas that was predictive of ability self-concept, and, influential with respect to perceived ability in normative domains. Contrary to expectations, peer affective reputation was more predictive with respect to gender-incongruent domains. Results were interpreted to suggest the dominance of gender-schema consistency concerns in relation to ability perceptions, but contrast effects in relation to school affect.

Two potential developmental costs of high self-esteem were investigated. One was that high self-esteem leads children to act on antisocial cognitions (the disposition activating hypothesis). The other was that high self-esteem leads children to rationalize antisocial conduct (the disposition-rationalizing hypothesis). Both hypotheses were explored in two longitudinal studies with preadolescents. In Study 1 (N = 189) the antisocial behavior was aggression; in Study 2 (N = 407) the antisocial behavior under focus was avoidance of the mother. There was little evidence for the disposition-activating hypothesis in either study but considerable support for the disposition-rationalizing hypothesis in both studies. Over time, aggressive children with high self-esteem increasingly valued the rewards that aggression offers and belittled their victims, and avoidant children with high self-esteem increasingly viewed their mother as harassing and uninvolved. Results therefore suggest that for antisocial children, high self-esteem carries costs, for both themselves and others.