A STUDY ON ACADEMIC SELF-CONCEPT AMONG ADOLESCENTS

Abstract

Academic self-concept is an important psychological factor that influences how adolescents think about their academic abilities, learning capacity, classroom performance, and future achievement. It refers to students’ perception of themselves as learners. Adolescence is a sensitive stage of development because students experience physical, emotional, social, and educational changes during this period. Their beliefs about their academic ability may affect their motivation, confidence, participation, study habits, and academic achievement. The present descriptive study focuses on academic self-concept among adolescents. It explains the meaning, nature, dimensions, importance, influencing factors, and educational relevance of academic self-concept. The study also highlights the role of family, teachers, peers, school environment, achievement experiences, and comparison with classmates in shaping academic self-concept. A positive academic self-concept helps adolescents become confident, motivated, and active learners, while a negative academic self-concept may lead to fear of failure, low participation, academic stress, and poor performance. Therefore, this study is useful for understanding the academic behaviour of adolescents and for suggesting ways to improve their confidence and learning outcomes.