The Multidimensional Structure of Academic Self-Concept: Invariance over Gender and Age

The present investigation supports the gender-invariant model of relations between math, verbal, academic, and general self-concepts. No support was found for the gender-stereotypic model that posits that academic and general self-concepts are more highly related to math self-concept for boys and are more highly related to verbal self-concept for girls. Extending the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) approach to factorial invariance, the structure of academic self-concept (factor loadings, factor correlations, and factor variances) was invariant across eight groups (2 gender × 4 adolescent ages; total N = 4,000). This strong support for the factorial invariance of responses to the Self-Description Questionnaire II provides good support for the comparison of mean scores over gender and age. The methodological approach has important implications for the study of individual differences in the structure of educational measures.