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Negative year in school effect: extending scope and strengthening causal claims
Parker, Philip D. Marsh, Herbert W. Thoemmes, Felix Biddle, Nicholas
Parker, Philip D.
Marsh, Herbert W.
Thoemmes, Felix
Biddle, Nicholas
Abstract
The Negative Year in School Effect (NYiSE) claims that grade-relative-to-age influences academic self-concept. Being young for your grade is associated with lower self-concept, whereas being old for your grade is associated with higher self-concept. We extend this research in several ways. First, we aim to improve causal claims for the NYiSE by utilizing birth month as an instrumental variable. Using the Longitudinal Study of Australian Youth we find that the NYiSE is negative under instrumental variable regression. Given that NYiSE has focused on math self-concept we show that the effect extends to other measures of math, general academic, and English social comparison. Finally, using General Estimating Equations we show that the NYiSE also has an effect on university entry that is explained by self-beliefs. Our research has policy implications around how children enter school. Further, this research shows that the use of alternative causal modeling strategies is a useful asset to educational research especially when randomized control trials are not yet available or feasible.
Keywords
Academic self-concept, instrumental variable, social comparison, university entry
Date
2019
Type
Journal article
Journal
Journal of Educational Psychology
Book
Volume
111
Issue
1
Page Range
118-130
Article Number
ACU Department
Faculty of Education and Arts
Institute for Positive Psychology and Education
Institute for Positive Psychology and Education
Relation URI
Source URL
Event URL
Open Access Status
Published as green open access
License
File Access
Open
Controlled
Controlled
Notes
©American Psychological Association, 2019. This paper is not the copy of record and may not exactly replicate the authoritative document published in the APA journal. Please do not copy or cite without author's permission. The final article is available, upon publication, at: https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000270