Comparison of self-concept of socially disadvantaged orphans and its relationship to academic achievement

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to compare the self-concept and its relation to academic achievement in a sample of orphans across: grade level, gender, and type of social disadvantage (loss of father, loss of mother, loss of both, and other cases). Ninety male and eighty five female students enrolled in 5th, 6th and 7th grades in a school orphanage in Alley, Lebanon responded to an adapted version of the Self-Description Questionnaire (SDQ). Means, standard deviations, total and subtotal self-concept scores were obtained for each of grade level, gender, and types of social disadvantage. One-way analysis of variance procedures were conducted to examine the differences across grade level, gender, and types of social disadvantage. ANOVA procedures revealed significant differences in self-concept measures across grade level and gender. However, no difference has been observed across types of social disadvantage. A series of correlation coefficients were computed to describe the relationship between categories of self-concept and academic achievement. It was observed that significant correlation exists between academic self-concept and academic achievement, as opposed to non-academic self-concept measures, across grade level, gender, and types of social disadvantage. The results were discussed in terms of the relationship between self-concept measures and academic achievement.