| This study examined issues of competence, importance of competence, and self-worth among 114 Hispanic and Anglo children in the fourth grade. The Self-Perception Profile for Children, a self-report instrument, was enhanced to include a scale that explored children's perception of their competence in their work at home. It was hypothesized that children who did not perceive themselves as competent in school, may discount their lack of school competence and use their competence at home to maintain their self-worth. It was further hypothesized that: (1) Anglos will perceive themselves as more competent in school than Hispanics. (2) Hispanics will perceive themselves as more competent at home than Anglos. (a) This perception will be stronger for girls.; Bivariate analyses of the scales by ethnicity and gender yielded mixed results. There were fewer differences in the competence scales by ethnicity than expected and more by gender. Often there were parallel findings for girls and Hispanics. Girls gave themselves consistently lower ratings than boys did for areas of competence but rated importance for many areas higher. Although not hypothesized, the single most notable gender difference was that girls reported significantly lower self-worth than boys.; Discounting of areas of perceived low competence was shown to operate between home and school competences. High competence in either home or school competence predicted the same level of high self-worth as did high competence in either home or school. Low self-worth occurred only when competence was low in both areas. Multivariate analysis also indicated that childrens' gender, home competence, importance of school, school competence and teacher support, in that order, had the strongest direct effects on self-worth. |
