The use of self-reports and peer reports as measures of self-esteem in middle school students

Many educators and psychologists believe self-esteem is an important variable in the educational process. An adequate level of self-esteem is recognized as being essential for students because it may affect their level of achievement and general state of well being. Self-report measures are the most commonly used techniques to evaluate children's perceptions of themselves. Children's self-reports are valuable since certain aspects of internalized problems are usually difficult for others to identify. Sociometrics, or peer reports, provide an alternative to self-report measures of self-esteem. Some studies have shown academic achievement, athletic ability, and socioeconomic status to correlate with sociometric status. Sociometric measures allow teachers to gather a wealth of information about their students quickly and easily. One purpose of this study was to determine the degree of similarity between self-reports and peer reports as measures of self-esteem in middle school students. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that self-reports and peer reports were separate, but related constructs. A second purpose of the study was to determine the effects of verbal ability, peer reports, and self-reports on current achievement while controlling for whether or not the student had a learning disability. A recursive path model found verbal ability and type of student (learning disabled versus not learning disabled) to have strong direct effects on achievement, whereas self-reports and peer reports had no Significant effects. A third purpose of this study was to examine differences between students with and without learning disabilities on the peer reports and self-reports. Students with learning disabilities were found to have lower scores on all peer report and self-report measures. No relationship was found between type of student and choices made on peer nominations.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph. D.

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educational Research and Evaluation

Department dc:contributor.department

Educational Research and Evaluation

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

1993

Author dc:creator

• Troutman, Gretchen Creech

Chairs dc:contributor.committeechair

• Fortune, Jimmie C.
• Keith, Timothy Z.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Geller, E. Scott
• Walls, Wemme E.
• Wolfle, Lee M.

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

etd-03022006-093359

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/41303