Abstract
The contribution of self-esteem and locus of control to the discrepancy in academic achievement between Hispanics and Anglos was investigated. Subjects were 67 Hispanic and 304 junior high school students. Variables were: (a) ethnicity, (b) grade-point average, (c) academic self-esteem, (d) academic locus of control and (e) socioeconomic level. Results indicated that Hispanics had a significantly lower mean grade-point average than Anglos. However, there were no significant differences in mean self-esteem or mean locus of control scores between the two groups. Interestingly, there was a significant interaction between locus of control and achievement for Anglos, but not for Hispanics, although the effect size was small. There was also a significant difference in grade-point average associated with socioeconomic level with Hispanics having a significantly lower mean socioeconomic level than Anglos. In addition, results indicated that self-esteem accounted for the largest amount of variance in student's GPA, regardless of the student's ethnicity. These results were discussed in terms of implications for future research and intervention designed to raise grade-point average.
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