Exploring the roles of academic self-concept and perseverance of effort in self-assessment practices

Based on the self-system processes model of motivation, we explored the mediating role of academic self-concept in the relationship between perseverance of effort and self-assessment. The results showed that perseverance of effort has a positive but not statistically significant association with self-assessment when controlling academic self-concept. The results supported our hypotheses that academic self-concept, whether at the domain-specific or component-specific level, significantly mediated the effect of the perseverance of effort on self-assessment, lending empirical support to the closer conceptual link between self-perceptions and self-assessment practices in learning. The results contribute to the literature of the three research lines (grit, academic self-concept and self-assessment) and suggest that academic self-concept enhancement interventions are beneficial not only to academic achievement based on the reciprocal relationship that has been well documented in the self-concept literature but also to self-assessment in the light of the self-system processes model of motivation.