Long-Term Costs of Inflated Self-Estimate on Academic Performance among Adolescent Students: A Case of Second-Language Achievements

Abstract

Past studies suggest that the adaptive or maladaptive consequences of inflated self-estimate, one form of positive illusions, require further investigation. 308 freshmen at a junior college (164 women, 144 men; M age = 19.8 yr., SD = 1.1) participated in a longitudinal study during a 2-yr. period. There were three assessments of short- and long-term effects of overly positive self-estimates on second-language achievement. Students' overestimation of subsequent performance appears to be associated with lower achievement. Those students with apparently inflated self-estimates performed marginally better on the first assessment but worse in the second and final assessments. Students with more accurate self-estimates showed improvement on all assessments. The findings suggested that overinflated self-estimates, i.e., positive illusions, among adolescent students might lead to a lower achievement over the long term.