Abstract

Students’ academic self-concept and self-esteem are strong indicators and facilitators for effective learning. Their relationship in determining academic achievement has been a debating issue in the educational field. The study examined the relationship among students’ academic self-concept, self-esteem, and academic achievement in mathematics in Anambra State. Four research questions and four null hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted correlationalapproach to provide answers to the research questions and test the hypotheses. The population of the study comprised 17,982 SS2 students of public secondary schools in Anambra state from which a sample of 600 was drawn. Multi-stage procedure was used to select the sample. Two standardized research instruments namely; Self Description Questionnaire (SDQ), Self-Esteem Questionnaire (SEQ), as well as scores from students’ promotional examination were used for data collection. Cronbach’s alpha was used to determine the reliability of the items in the instruments. Reliability indices of 0.83, 0.74 and 0.72 were indicated for high self-esteem, low self-esteem and self-concept respectively. The Pearson product moment correlation was used to answer research questions 1 to 3 and test of hypotheses 1 to 3 while the research question four and hypothesis four were answered and tested with multiple regression. The findings showed that students’ academic self-concept recorded a very low positive relationship with academic achievement in mathematics. Students’ high self-esteem recorded a medium positive relationship with students’ academic self-concept. Findings of the study revealed that these variables do not statistically predict academic achievement of the students. Based on the findings, it was recommended that, it is necessary to give adequate and sufficient attention to academic selfconcept and self-esteem as these variables recorded a very low positive relationship with achievement and teachers should be offered methodological guidance in order to work on these variables for optimal performance in future.

Keywords:Academic self-concept, Self-esteem and Academic achievement.