Structural Relations Model of Self-Rejection, Disposition to Deviance, and Academic Failure

Using three-wave panel data from 1,756 junior high school students, and LISREL VII, the authors estimated a theoretically informed structural model that specifies a linkage between self-derogation in a school context and subsequent academic failure that is mediated by a disposition to deviate from conventional expectations. The model is a specific application in the school setting of a general model of deviant adaptations in response to context-specific self-devaluing experiences. Results support the idea that academic failure, in part, is motivated behavior that may be viewed as an adaptation to previous self-devaluing experiences within a school context.