Cross-cultural generalizability of year in school effects: Negative effects of acceleration and positive effects of retention on academic self-concept

Journal of Educational Psychology

Volumn 108, Issue 2, 2016, Pages 256-273

  Marsh, Herbert W ^a  

^a AUSTRALIAN CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY   (Australia)

Author keywords

Academic self concept; Big Fish Little Pond Effect (BFLPE); Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA); Relative year in school; School acceleration retention

Indexed keywords

EID: 84956589757     PISSN: 00220663     EISSN: 19392176     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1037/edu0000059     Document Type: Article

References (102)

1. Alexander, K. L., Entwisle, D. R.,&Dauber, S. L. (2003). On the success of failure: A reassessment of the effects of retention in the primary school grades. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
2. Allen, C., Chen, Q., Willson, V.,&Hughes, J. N. (2009). Quality of research design moderates effects of grade retention on achievement: A meta-analytic, multi-level analysis. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 31, 480-499. http://dx.doi.org/10.3102/0162373709352239
3. Alwin, D. F.,&Otto, L. B. (1977). High school context effects on aspirations. Sociology of Education, 50, 259-273. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2112499
4. Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
5. Bong, M.,&Skaalvik, E. M. (2003). Academic self-concept and selfefficacy: How different are they really? Educational Psychology Review, 15, 1-40. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1021302408382
6. Boyd, L.,&Iverson, G. (1979). Contextual analysis: Concepts and statistical techniques. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
7. Chen, S., Yeh, Y., Hwang, F.,&Lin, S. S. J. (2013). The relationship between academic self-concept and achievement: A multicohort-multioccasion study. Learning and Individual Differences, 23, 172-178. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2012.07.021
8. Coleman, J. M.,&Fults, B. A. (1985). Special class placement, level of intelligence, and the self-concepts of gifted children: A social comparison perspective. Remedial and Special Education, 6, 8-10. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/074193258500600103
9. Davis, J. A. (1966). The campus as a frog pond: An application of theory of relative deprivation to career decisions for college men. American Journal of Sociology, 72, 17-31. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/224257
10. Diener, E. (2000). Subjective well-being-The science of happiness and a proposal for a national index. American Psychologist, 55, 34-43. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.34
11. Diener, E.,&Fujita, F. (1997). Social comparison and subjective well-being. In B. P. Buunk&F. X. Gibbons (Eds.), Health, coping, and well-being: Perspectives from social comparison theory (pp. 329-358). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
12. Festinger, L. (1954). A theory of social comparison processes. Human Relations, 7, 117-140. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/001872675400700202
13. Firebaugh, G. (1978). A rule for inferring individual-level relationships from aggregate data. American Sociological Review, 43, 557-572. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2094779
14. Fuligni, A. (1998). The adjustment of children from immigrant families. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 7, 99-103. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-8721.ep10774731
15. Gladwell, M. (2013). David and Goliath: Underdogs, misfits, and the art of battling giants. Boston, MA: Little, Brown&Company.
16. Goldstein, H. (2003). Multilevel statistical models. London: Edward Arnold.
17. Guay, F., Larose, S.,&Boivin, M. (2004). Academic self-concept and educational attainment level: A ten-year longitudinal study. Self and Identity, 3, 53-68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13576500342000040
18. Guay, F., Marsh, H. W.,&Boivin, M. (2003). Academic self-concept and academic achievement: Developmental perspectives on their causal ordering. Journal of Educational Psychology, 95, 124-136. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.95.1.124
19. Hattie, J. A. (2012). Visible learning: A synthesis of 800+ meta-analyses on achievement. Abingdon, England: Routledge.
20. Helson, H. (1964). Adaptation-level theory. New York, NY: Harper & Row.
21. Hox, J. (2002). Multilevel analysis: Techniques and applications. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
22. Huguet, P., Dumas, F., Marsh, H., Régner, I., Wheeler, L., Suls, J., Nezlek, J. (2009). Clarifying the role of social comparison in the Big-Fish-Little-Pond Effect (BFLPE): An integrative study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97, 156-170. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0015558
23. Hyman, H. (1942). The psychology of subjective status. Psychological Bulletin, 39, 473-474.
24. Im, M. H., Hughes, J. N., Kwok, O., Puckett, S.,&Cerda, C. A. (2013). Effect of retention in elementary grades on transition to middle school. Journal of School Psychology, 51, 349-365. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2013.01.004
25. James, W. (1963). The principles of psychology (Vol. 2). New York, NY: Holt. (Original work published 1890)
26. Jimerson, S. R. (2001). Meta-analysis of grade retention research: Implications for practice in the 21st century. School Psychology Review, 30, 420-437.
27. Jimerson, S. R.,&Brown, J. A. (2013). Grade retention. In J. A. Hattie & E. M. Anderman (Eds.), International guide to student achievement (pp. 42-44). New York, NY: Routledge.
28. Jonkmann, K., Becker, M., Marsh, H. W., Lüdtke, O.,&Trautwein, U. (2012). Personality traits moderate the Big-Fish-Little-Pond effect of academic self-concept. Learning and Individual Differences, 22, 736-746. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2012.07.020
29. Kretschmann, J., Vock, M.,&Lüdtke, O. (2014). Acceleration in elementary school: Using propensity score matching to estimate the effects on academic achievement. [Advance online publication]. Journal of Educational Psychology, 106, 1080-1095. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0036631
30. Kulik, J. A.,&Kulik, C. C. (1984). Effects of accelerated instruction on students. Review of Educational Research, 54, 409-425. http://dx.doi.org/10.3102/00346543054003409
31. Kulik, J. A.,&Kulik, C.-L. C. (2004). Meta-analytic findings on grouping programs. In L. E. Brody (Ed.), Essential reading in gifted education. Grouping and acceleration practices in gifted education (pp. 105-114). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
32. Lüdtke, O., Köller, O., Marsh, H.,&Trautwein, U. (2005). Teacher frame of reference and the big-fish-little-pond effect. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 30, 263-285. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2004.10.002
33. Marsh, H. W. (1974). Judgmental anchoring: Stimulus and response variables. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles.
34. Marsh, H. W. (1983). Neutral-point anchoring of personality-trait words. The American Journal of Psychology, 96, 513-526. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1422572
35. Marsh, H. W. (1984). Self-concept: The application of a frame of reference model to explain paradoxical results. Australian Journal of Education, 28, 165-181.
36. Marsh, H. W. (1987). The big-fish-little-pond effect on academic self-concept. Journal of Educational Psychology, 79, 280-295. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.79.3.280
37. Marsh, H. W. (1990). A multidimensional, hierarchical model of self-concept: Theoretical and empirical justification. Educational Psychology Review, 2, 77-172. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF01322177
38. Marsh, H. W. (1991). Failure of high ability schools to deliver academic benefits commensurate with their students' ability levels. American Educational Research Journal, 28, 445-480. http://dx.doi.org/10.3102/00028312028002445
39. Marsh, H. W. (2005). Big fish little pond effect on academic self-concept. German Journal of Educational Psychology, 19, 119-128.
40. Marsh, H. W. (2007). Self-concept theory, measurement and research into practice: The role of self-concept in Educational Psychology. Leicester, United Kingdom: British Psychological Society.
41. Marsh, H. W., Abduljabbar, A. S., Parker, P. D., Morin, A. J., Abdelfattah, F.,&Nagengast, B. (2014). The big-fish-little-pond effect in mathematics: A cross-cultural comparison of US and Saudi Arabian TIMSS responses. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 45, 777-804. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022022113519858
42. Marsh, H. W., Abduljabbar, A. S., Parker, P. D., Morin, A. J., Abdelfattah, F., Nagengast, B.,&Abu-Hilal, M. A. (2015). The big-fish-little-pond effect: Generalizability of social comparison processes over two age cohorts from Western, Asian, and Middle Eastern Islamic countries. Journal of Educational Psychology (on-line pre-publication version).
43. Marsh, H. W., Chessor, D., Craven, R.,&Roche, L. (1995). The effects of gifted and talented programs on academic self-concept: The big fish strikes again. American Educational Research Journal, 32, 285-319. http://dx.doi.org/10.3102/00028312032002285
44. Marsh, H. W.,&Craven, R. (2002). The pivotal role of frames of reference in academic self-concept formation: The big fish little pond effect. In F. Pajares&T. Urdan (Eds.), Adolescence and education (Vol. II, pp. 83-123). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
45. Marsh, H. W.,&Craven, R. G. (2006). Reciprocal effects of self-concept and performance from a multidimensional perspective: beyond seductive pleasure and unidimensional perspectives. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 1, 133-163. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6916.2006.00010.x
46. Marsh, H. W.,&Hau, K. (2003). Big-fish-little-pond-effect on academic self-concept. A cross-cultural (26 country) test of the negative effects of academically selective schools. American Psychologist, 58, 364-376. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.58.5.364
47. Marsh, H. W., Hau, K.-T., Artelt, C., Baumert, J.,&Peschar, J. L. (2006). OECD's brief self-report measure of Educational Psychology's most useful affective constructs: Cross-cultural, psychometric comparisons across 25 countries. International Journal of Testing, 6, 311-360. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327574ijt0604_1
48. Marsh, H. W., Hau, K.,&Craven, R. G. (2004). The big-fish-little-pond effect stands up to scrutiny. American Psychologist, 59, 269-271. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.59.4.269
49. Marsh, H. W., Köller, O.,&Baumert, J. (2001). Reunification of East and West German school systems: Longitudinal multilevel modeling study of the big fish little pond effect on academic self-concept. American Educational Research Journal, 38, 321-350. http://dx.doi.org/10.3102/00028312038002321
50. Marsh, H. W., Kong, C.-K.,&Hau, K.-T. (2000). Longitudinal multilevel models of the big-fish-little-pond effect on academic self-concept: Counterbalancing contrast and reflected-glory effects in Hong Kong schools. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 337-349. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.78.2.337
51. Marsh, H. W., Kuyper, H., Morin, A. J. S., Parker, P. D.,&Seaton, M. (2014). Big-fish-little-pond social comparison and local dominance effects: Integrating new statistical models, methodology, design, theory and substantive implications. Learning and Instruction, 33, 50-66. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2014.04.002
52. Marsh, H. W., Lüdtke, O., Nagengast, B., Trautwein, U., Morin, A. J. S., Abduljabbar, A. S.,&Köller, O. (2012). Classroom climate and contextual effects: Conceptual and methodological issues in the evaluation of group-level effects. Educational Psychologist, 47, 106-124. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2012.670488
53. Marsh, H. W., Lüdtke, O., Robitzsch, A., Trautwein, U., Asparouhov, T., Muthen, B.,&Nagengast, B. (2009). Doubly-latent models of school contextual effects: Integrating multilevel and structural equation approaches to control measurement and sampling error. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 44, 764-802. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00273170903333665
54. Marsh, H. W., Morin, A. J. S.,&Parker, P. D. (in press). Physical self-concept changes in a selective sport high school: A longitudinal cohort-sequence analysis of the big-fish-little-pond effect. Journal of Sport&Exercise Psychology.
55. Marsh, H. W.,&O'Mara, A. J. (2010). Long-term total negative effects of school-average ability on diverse educational outcomes: Direct and indirect effects of the big-fish-little-pond effect. Zeitschrift für Pädagogische Psychologie/German. Journal of Educational Psychology, 24, 51-72.
56. Marsh, H. W.,&Parker, J. W. (1984). Determinants of student self-concept: Is it better to be a relatively large fish in a small pond even if you don't learn to swim as well? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 47, 213-231. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.47.1.213
57. Marsh, H. W.,&Seaton, M. (in press). The big-fish-little pond effect, competence self-perceptions, and relativity: Substantive advances and methodological innovation. In A. Elliot (Ed.), Advances in motivation science. Oxford, UK: Elsevier.
58. Marsh, H. W., Seaton, M., Trautwein, U., Lüdtke, O., Hau, K. T., O'Mara, A. J.,&Craven, R. G. (2008). The big-fish-little-pond-effect stands up to critical scrutiny: Implications for theory, methodology, and future research. Educational Psychology Review, 20, 319-350. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10648-008-9075-6
59. Marsh, H. W., Trautwein, U., Ludtke, O., Baumert, J.,&Köller, O. (2007). Big fish little pond effect: Persistent negative effects of selective high schools on self-concept after graduation. American Educational Research Journal, 44, 631-669. http://dx.doi.org/10.3102/0002831207306728
60. Marsh, H. W., Trautwein, U., Lüdtke, O.,&Köller, O. (2008). Social comparison and big-fish-little-pond effects on self-concept and other self-belief constructs: Role of generalized and specific others. Journal of Educational Psychology, 100, 510-524. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.100.3.510
61. Marsh, H. W., Walker, R.,&Debus, R. (1991). Subject-specific components of academic self-concept and self-efficacy. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 16, 331-345. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0361-476X(91)90013-B
62. Meyer, J. W. (1970). High school effects on college intentions. American Journal of Sociology, 76, 59-70. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/224906
63. Morse, S.,&Gergen, K. J. (1970). Social comparison, self-consistency, and the concept of self. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 16, 148-156. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0029862
64. Moser, S. E., West, S. G.,&Hughes, J. N. (2012). Trajectories of math and reading achievement in low achieving children in elementary school: Effects of early and later retention in grade. Journal of Educational Psychology, 104, 603-621. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0027571
65. Nagengast, B.,&Marsh, H. W. (2012). Big fish in little ponds aspire more: Mediation and cross-cultural generalizability of school-average ability effects on self-concept and career aspirations in science. Journal of Educational Psychology, 104, 1033-1053. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0027697
66. Nagengast, B.,&Marsh, H. W. (2013). Motivation and engagement in science around the globe: Testing measurement invariance with multigroup SEMs across 57 countries using PISA 2006. In L. Rutkowski, M. von Davier,&D. Rutkowski (Eds.), A handbook of international largescale assessment data analysis (pp. 317-344). London: Chapman & Hall, CRC Press.
67. Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. (2005a). PISA 2003 data analysis manual: SPSS users. Paris: Author.
68. Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. (2005b). PISA 2003 Tech. Rep. No. Paris: Author.
69. Parducci, A. (1995). Happiness, pleasure, and judgment: The contextual theory and its applications. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
70. Parducci, A., Perrett, D.,&Marsh, H. W. (1969). Assimilation and contrast as range frequency effects of anchors. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 81, 281-288. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0027741
71. Pinxten, M., de Fraine, B., van Damme, J.,&D'Haenens, E. (2010). Causal ordering of academic self-concept and achievement: Effects of type of achievement measure. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 80, 689-709. http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/000709910X493071
72. Portes, A.,&Rumbault, R. (2001). Legacies: The story of the second generation. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
73. Preacher, K. J., Zyphur, M. J.,&Zhang, Z. (2010). A general multilevel SEM framework for assessing multilevel mediation. Psychological Methods, 15, 209-233. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0020141
74. Rasbash, J., Steele, F., Browne, W.,&Prosser, B. (2004). A user's guide to MLwiN-Version 2.0. Bristol, TN: University of Bristol.
75. Raudenbush, S. W.,&Bryk, A. S. (2002). Hierarchical linear models (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
76. Reynolds, A. J. (1992). Grade retention and school adjustment: An explanatory analysis. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 14, 101-121. http://dx.doi.org/10.3102/01623737014002101
77. Roderick, M. (1994). Grade retention and school dropout: Investigating the association. American Educational Research Journal, 31, 729-759. http://dx.doi.org/10.3102/00028312031004729
78. Roderick, M.,&Engel, M. (2001). The Grasshopper and the Ant: Motivational Responses of Low-Achieving Students to High-Stakes Testing. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 23, 197-227. http://dx.doi.org/10.3102/01623737023003197
79. Rogers, S. (1941). The anchoring of absolute judgments. Archives de Psychologie, 37, 1-42.
80. Sam, D. L.,&Berry, J. W. (2010). Acculturation: When individuals and groups of different cultural background meet. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5, 472-481. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1745691610373075
81. Schulz, W. (2005). Scaling procedures and construct validation of context questionnaire data. In R. Adams (Ed.), PISA 2003 Tech. Rep. No. Paris: OECD Publications.
82. Schwarzer, R., Lange, B.,&Jerusalem, M. (1982). Selbstkonzeptentwicklung nach einem Bezugsgruppenwechsel [Self-concept development after a reference-group change]. Zeitschrift für Entwicklungspsychologie und Pädagogische Psychologie, 14, 125-140.
83. Seaton, M., Marsh, H. W.,&Craven, R. G. (2009). Earning its place as a pan-human theory: Universality of the big-fish-little-pond effect across 41 culturally and economically diverse countries. Journal of Educational Psychology, 101, 403-419. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0013838
84. Seaton, M., Marsh, H. W.,&Craven, R. G. (2010). Big-Fish-Little-Pond-Effect: Generalizability and moderation-Two sides of the same coin. American Educational Research Journal, 47, 390-433. http://dx.doi.org/10.3102/0002831209350493
85. Seaton, M., Marsh, H. W., Dumas, F., Huguet, P., Monteil, J.-M., Régner, I., Suls, J. (2008). In search of the big-fish: Investigating the coexistence of the Big-Fish-Little-Pond effect with the positive effects of upward comparison. British Journal of Social Psychology, 47, 73-103. http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/014466607X202309
86. Seaton, M., Marsh, H. W.,&Parker, P. D. (2013). A tale of many countries: A review of Big-Fish-Little-Pond Effect research in different cultural contexts. In G. A. Liem&A. B. I. Bernardo (Eds.), Advancing cross-cultural perspectives on educational psychology: A festschrift for Dennis McInerney (pp. 211-227). Greenwich, CT: Information Age Press.
87. Segall, M. H., Lonner, W. J.,&Berry, J. W. (1998). Cross-cultural psychology as a scholarly discipline: On the flowering of culture in behavioral research. American Psychologist, 53, 1101-1110. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.53.10.1101
88. Seligman, M. E. P.,&Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive psychology: An introduction. American Psychologist, 55, 5-14.
89. Shavelson, R. J., Hubner, J. J.,&Stanton, G. C. (1976). Validation of construct interpretations. Review of Educational Research, 46, 407-441.
90. Sherif, M. (1935). A study of some social factors in perception. Archives of Psychology, No. 187.
91. Sherif, M.,&Sherif, C. W. (1969). Social psychology. New York, NY: Harper&Row.
92. Snijders, T. A. B.,&Bosker, R. J. (1999). Multilevel analysis: An introduction to basic and advanced multilevel modeling. London: Sage.
93. Stouffer, S. A., Suchman, E. A., DeVinney, L. C., Star, S. A.,&Williams, R. M. (1949). The American soldier: Adjustments during army life (Vol. 1). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
94. Suls, J. M. (1977). Social comparison theory and research: An overview from 1954. In J. M. Suls&R. L. Miller (Eds.), Social comparison processes: Theoretical and empirical perspectives (pp. 1-20). Washington, DC: Hemisphere.
95. Suls, J.,&Wheeler, L. (2000). A selective history of classic and neo-social comparison theory. In J. Suls&L. Wheeler (Eds.), Handbook of social comparison: Theory and research (pp. 3-19). New York, NY: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4237-7_1
96. Trautwein, U., Lüdtke, O., Marsh, H. W., Köller, O.,&Baumert, J. (2006). Tracking, grading, and student motivation: Using group composition and status to predict self-concept and interest in ninth-grade mathematics. Journal of Educational Psychology, 98, 788-806. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.98.4.788
97. Trautwein, U., Lüdtke, O., Marsh, H. W.,&Nagy, G. (2009). Withinschool social comparison: How students perceive the standing of their class predicts academic self-concept. Journal of Educational Psychology, 101, 853-866. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0016306
98. Upshaw, H. S. (1969). In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), The personal reference scale: An approach to social judgment. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 4, pp. 315-370). New York, NY: Academic.
99. Volkman, J. (1951). Scales of judgment and their implications for social psychology. In J. H. Loher&M. Sherif (Eds.), Social psychology at the crossroads (pp. 273-294). New York, NY: Harper.
100. Wedell, D. H.,&Parducci, A. (2000). Social comparison: Lessons from basic research on judgment. In J. Suls&L. Wheeler (Eds.), Handbook of social comparison: Theory and research. The Plenum Press series in social/clinical psychology (pp. 223-252). Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4237-7_12
101. Wu, W., West, S. G.,&Hughes, J. N. (2008). Effect of retention in first grade on children's achievement trajectories over 4 years: A piecewise growth analysis using propensity score matching. Journal of Educational Psychology, 100, 727-740. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0013098
102. Wu, W., West, S. G.,&Hughes, J. N. (2010). Effect of grade retention in first grade on psychosocial outcomes. Journal of Educational Psychology, 102, 135-152. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0016664