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Self-perceived stability and change in children’s competence

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Abstract

Using Harter’s (Child Dev 53(1):87–97, 1982) perceived competence scale, this study integrates several paradigms related to the issues of self-perceived competence, stability or change and attributional theory. It examines how 268 Belgian and Portuguese fifth graders consider their scholastic, social and physical competence at present and in a retrospective or prospective time perspective. The children were also asked to rate the causes of their self-perceived competence-related stability or change. Nearly all of the children who saw change indicated that they had changed/would change in a positive way. Children more often thought that they would change in the future than that they had changed in the past. Children who saw change also made more internal attributions (effort and ability) than children who saw only stability. Finally, the results varied consistently between the Belgian and the Portuguese samples, indicating cross-cultural differences which are tentatively illuminated by macro-systemic considerations referring to educational policy in the two countries.

Résumé

La présente étude intègre différents concepts et paradigmes, celui du sentiment de compétence, du changement et de la stabilité ainsi que la théorie des attributions causales. Pour ce faire, elle se base sur les échelles de Harter (1982) et examine comment 268 enfants belges et portugais évaluent leur compétence dans le domaine scolaire, social et physique actuellement et dans une perspective rétrospective ou prospective. Les enfants ont également évalué les raisons pour lesquelles leur compétence pouvait avoir changé ou était restée stable. La quasi-totalité des enfants qui avaient affirmé que leur compétence avait changé, ont également indiqué que leur compétence avait changé de manière positive. Les enfants ont par ailleurs estimé que leur compétence allait davantage changer dans le futur qu’elle n’avait changé par le passé. Les enfants estimant avoir changé faisaient significativement plus référence à des attributions internes (effort et habileté) que les enfants affirmant que leur compétence était restée stable. Enfin, des différences interculturelles ont été mises en évidence entre les enfants belges et les enfants portugais. Ces différences ont été interprétées à partir d’éléments macrosystémiques relatifs à la politique en matière d’éducation dans les deux pays.

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Acknowledgements

Pascal Scheyvaert cooperated in the construction of the questionnaire used in the study and in data collection for the Belgian sample. Margarida Allen cooperated in data collection for the Portuguese sample. James Day kindly supervised the linguistic presentation; the Centre de Traduction de Louvain revised the final version. We gratefully acknowledge these various forms of support.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Catholic University of Louvain, 10 Place Cardinal Mercier, 1348, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

    Christiane Vandenplas-Holper & Isabelle Roskam

  2. University of Porto, Rua Dr Manuel Pereira da Silva, 4200-392, Porto, Portugal

    Anne-Marie Fontaine

Authors
  1. Christiane Vandenplas-Holper
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  2. Isabelle Roskam
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  3. Anne-Marie Fontaine
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Isabelle Roskam.

Additional information

Christiane Vandenplas-Holper. Université Catholique de Louvain, Department of Psychology, 10 place Cardinal Mercier, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. E-mail: christiane.holper@uclouvain.be; Web site: http://www.uclouvain.be

Current themes of research:

A developmental analysis of children’s stories and educational television series.

Most relevant publications in the field of Psychology of Education:

Vandenplas-Holper, Ch. (1996). Nursery school teachers’ control beliefs, beliefs about development and education in educational action. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 17(3), 453–473.

Vandenplas, Ch. (2003). Le développement psychologique à l'âge adulte et pendant la vieillesse. Maturité et sagesse. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. Collection Education et Formation. Deuxième édition.

Vandenplas, Ch. (2006). Apprendre avec autrui tout au long de la vie. La zone de développement proximal revisitée. Dans E. Bourgeois et G. Chapelle (sous la direction de). Apprendre et faire apprendre (pp. 195–211). Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.

Vandenplas, Ch., Casalfiore, St., Seynhaeve, I., & Nicolas, St. (2001). L’eau lustrale et le décret du ciel: l’analyse d'un conte de Grimm. Dans S. Saroglou et D. Hutsebout (sous la direction de). Religion et développement humain: perspectives psychologiques. Hommage à Jean-Marie Jaspard (pp. 169–200). Paris: L'Harmattan.

Vandenplas-Holper, C., Roskam, I., & Pirot, L. (2006). Mothers' social cognition and self-reported childrearing concerning their child's personality: A content analysis of mothers' free descriptions. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 3(4), 338–356.

Isabelle Roskam. Université Catholique de Louvain, Department of Psychology, 10 place Cardinal Mercier, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. E-mail: isabelle.roskam@uclouvain.be; Web site: http://www.uclouvain.be

Current themes of research:

Child development. Parenting. Development of cultural identity. Education and pluralism. Children’s personality.

Most relevant publications in the field of Psychology of Education:

Roskam, I., Zech, E., Nader, N., & Nils, F. (2008). School reorientation of disabled children: A stressful life event challenging parental cognitive and behavioral adjustment. Journal of Counseling and Development, 86(2), 132–142.

Meunier, J-C., & Roskam, I. (2007). Psychometrical properties of a parental childrearing behaviour scale for French-speaking parents, children and adolescents. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 23(2), 113–124.

Roskam, I., & Schelstraete, M. (2007). Qualitative analysis of mothers’ childrearing behaviour towards their disabled child. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 28 (2), 130–144.

Roskam, I. (2005). A comparative study of mothers’ beliefs and childrearing behaviour: The effect of the child’s disability and the mother’s educational level. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 20(1), 139–153.

Roskam, I., Kinoo, P., & Nassogne, M-C. (2007). L’enfant avec troubles externalisés du comportement: approche épigénétique et développementale. Neuropsychiatrie de l’Enfance et de l’Adolescence, 55, 204–214.

Anne-Marie Fontaine. University of Porto, Faculty of Psychology and Education, Rua Dr. Manuel Pereira da Silva, 4200–392 Porto, Portugal. E-mail: fontaine@fpce.up.pt; Web site: www.fpce.up.pt

Current themes of research:

Family and school influence on differential development of motivation, self-esteem/self-concept, attributions, personal conception of intelligence. Impact of these on school achievement. Life projects development in late adolescence and early adulthood: Attitudes towards gender, work and family. Intergenerational and cross-cultural perspective. Transmission of adult roles, family independence and intergenerational solidarity across cultures.

Most relevant publications in the field of Psychology of Education:

Antunes, C., & Fontaine, A. M. (2000). Relations between self-concept and social support appraisals during adolescence: A longitudinal study. Psychology, 7(3), 339–353.

Fontaine, A. M. (1995). Self-concept and motivation during adolescence: Their influence on school achievement. In A. Oosterwegel & R. A. Wicklund (Eds.), The self in European and North-American culture: Development and processes (pp. 205–217). Amsterdam: Kluwer Academic.

Antunes, C., & Fontaine, A. M. (2007). Gender differences in the causal relation between maths self-concept and scholastic performance in students from 7th to12th grades. Psychologica Belgica, 47(1–2), 71–94.

Fontaine, A. M., Andrade, C., Matias, M., Gato, J., & Mendonça, M. (2007) Family and work division in Portuguese dual earner families. In I. Crespi (Ed.), Gender mainstreaming and family policy in Europe: Perspectives, research and debates (pp. 167–198). Macerata: EUM Edizioni.

Andrade, C., & Fontaine, A. M. (2008). Rôles familiaux et professionnels: Attitudes et stratégies de conciliation. Ce qui se transmet. La Revue Internationale de l’Education Familiale, 22, 67–85.

Appendix

Appendix

English translation, layout and scoring for one of the items of the scholastic domain in the RTP

Now, think very hard about how you were last year when you were in fourth grade. OK, do you remember?

Also think very hard about how you are now.

The six items of the stability–change questionnaire were each presented in an A3 format. Once the children had chosen one of the three options for explicit change status, the research assistant asked them to cross out the other two other options. The numbers from 1 to 4 were not present in the questionnaire given to the children. They illustrate how the agency belief scores for development were assigned by the researchers.

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Vandenplas-Holper, C., Roskam, I. & Fontaine, AM. Self-perceived stability and change in children’s competence. Eur J Psychol Educ 25, 1–17 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-009-0001-1

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