The Relative Importance of Teachers and Parents in the Formation of Negro and White Students’ Academic Self-Concept

This study compared the relative importance of parents and teachers in the formation of Negro and white students’ academic self-concept. Measures of academic self-concept and perceived parents’ and teachers’ evaluations of academic ability were administered to 165 white tenth graders, 166 Negro eleventh and twelfth graders, and 133 Negro ninth graders. For white students, parents’ perceived evaluation was found to be slightly more strongly related to students’ academic self-concept than teachers’ perceived evaluation. For black students, it was the teachers’ perceived evaluation that was more strongly related to the student’s academic self-concept, although the difference reached significance only for females. These results suggest the special importance of the teacher in the formation of the Negro student’s concept of his academic potential.