Social comparison in the classroom: Is there a tendency to compare upward in elementary school ?

authors

• Dumas Florence
• Huguet Pascal
• Monteil Jean-Marc
• Rastoul Claire
• Nezlek John

keywords

• School competiion
• Academic self-concept
• School system
• Children performance

document type

abstract

The central question here is whether elementary school children compare their exam grades with other children in their classroom who perform slightly better than themselves, as typically do middle school children. Children in grade levels five through nine nominated their comparison targets in three academic domains, and a series of standard regression and multilevel analyses examined the relationships between children's performances and the performances of their targets in these domains. Children in grade levels five and six did not compare upward, whereas children in grade levels seven and eight did in some courses, and children in ninth grade level did in each course. The present results clearly demonstrate that the tendency to compare upward becomes stronger over time in the school system.

more information