The Role of Self-Esteem in the Academic Performance of Rural Students in China

Wenjing Yu, Yiwei Qian (), Cody Abbey, Huan Wang, Scott Rozelle, Lauren Ann Stoffel and Chenxu Dai
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Wenjing Yu: China Academy for Rural Development, Zhejiang University Zijingang Campus, Hangzhou 310058, China
Yiwei Qian: Research Institute of Economics and Management, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu 610074, China
Cody Abbey: Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
Huan Wang: Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
Lauren Ann Stoffel: Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
Chenxu Dai: Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 20, 1-16

Abstract: The self-esteem of students may be significantly associated with their academic performance. However, past research in developing contexts on this issue is limited, particularly among early adolescents. Using a sample of 3101 students from rural primary and junior high schools in China, this study measured their self-esteem by the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) and explored its association with academic performance. Our findings indicate that students in rural China had both significantly lower self-esteem and a higher prevalence of low self-esteem when compared to past studies of similarly aged students both from urban China and internationally. Furthermore, there was a strong positive correlation between a student’s self-esteem and academic performance. A one-SD increase in RSES score (indicating better self-esteem) was associated with an increase of 0.12 SD in standardized math scores ( p < 0.001), and students with low self-esteem (RSES score < 25) scored lower on math tests by 0.14 SD ( p < 0.001), which were robust and consistent when employing the propensity score matching method. Our study expands the growing body of empirical evidence on the link between self-esteem and academic performance among rural youth in developing countries and emphasizes the need to improve their self-esteem with the aim of helping them achieve academically.

Keywords: self-esteem; academic performance; developing countries; rural China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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