THE INFLUENCE OF SELF-CONCEPT ON ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

There are some researches that confirm the positive relationship between self-concept and academic achievement, usually of the academic self-concept dimension and almost always in non-university students. In this work we were looking for confirming the influence of self-concept in the academic achievement of the university students. In order to do it we worked with a sample of 1298 students from the three universities located in the city of Valencia (Spain): the University of Valencia, the Polytechnic University of Valencia and the Catholic University of Valencia. The first two were public universities and the third one was private. We assessed the self-concept by means of the AF5 questionnaire, which gives scores of five types of self-concept: academic/labour, emotional, family self-concept, physical and social. We also took data from the academic achievement of university students by using the mean score of grades of five compulsory subjects of the academic year in which the research was conducted. From these scores we carried out correlations between self-concept scores and grades, and also linear multiple regression analysis that showed a moderate relationship between three of the five types of self-concept that assesses the questionnaire (academic, physical and family self-concept) and academic achievement. We also conducted hierarchical cluster analysis (k-means) with self-concept scores, finding three groups of students, one of them with a good profile of self-concept and the other two with a weaker profile. The first one had better grades, although differences between the three groups were not significant in ANOVA. These results help us to realize the importance of supporting, as teachers, the development of a good self-concept in our university students. Additionally, they complement the results of other studies that have examined other constructs and its impact on the academic achievement of university students.