Gender Differences in the Relationship Between Academic Self-Concept and Self-Reported Depressed Mood in School Children

摘要

In light of literature highlighting gender differences related to academic self-concept and depressed mood,this study explored the contributions of academic selfconcept in individual subject areas to self-reported depressed mood in 86 elementary-age boys and girls from a province in central Canada. Results indicated that academic self-concept explained 68% and 62% of the variance in self-reported depressed mood for boys and girls, respectively.Separate analyses conducted for boys and girls indicated disparate predictive models that cohered with gender stereotypic self-perceptions: math for boys and reading for girls. Interestingly, physical education emerged as a significant contributor for boys and girls. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of addressing the relationship between children’s social-emotional selfperceptions and academic self-concept within domainspecific lenses.