| There have been a number of studies which have dealt with children's self-concept, but most of these studies have been conducted in Western countries such as the United States and Australia.{09}With regard to the field of self-concept studies in Asian countries, only a few attempts have so far been conducted with Japanese students. In order to examine the internal and external influences which affect the formation of self-concept, the construct validity of Japanese self-concept was investigated by using the same theory and methods which are commonly used in Western countries. The type of study is the area study focusing on Japanese education by applying the Western self-concept theory and methods.{09}The sample of this study was comprised of 312 male and 318 female Japanese elementary school students in 4th through 6th grade.; As a theoretical model, the multifaceted and hierarchical self-concept model, which is proposed by Shavelson, Habner, and Stanton (1976), was used. As quantitative data, two self-concept instruments, Self Esteem Inventory (Coopersmith, 1967) and the Self-Description Questionnaire (Marsh, Parker, and Smith, 1983), were administered to students. As qualitative data, the in-depth interview of teachers was conducted in order to explore their evaluation of each student in terms of their academic achievement, behavior, and communication with others.; The results show that: (1) concerning the gender difference in self-concept, males have higher levels of self-concept in Physical Ability and Math, whereas females have higher levels of self-concept in Peers, Parents, and Reading; (2) overall there is a tendency for decline in self-concept with age; and (3) in the correlation analysis, there are significant positive correlations between teachers' ratings regarding students' academic level and social skills, and students' responses matching these traits. Furthermore, the factor analysis revealed that the factor loadings for each variable measuring different traits of self-concept were consistently high on the factor which it was designed to measure. The internal consistency of the SEI is adequate but somewhat lower than that of the SDQ. These findings imply the adequate construct validity of two scales and the support for the multidimensionality of self-concept in Japanese students. |
