STRUCTURAL RELATIONS MODEL OF SELF-REJECTION, DISPOSITION TO DEVIANCE, AND ACADEMIC-FAILURE

Using three-wave panel data from 1,756 junior high school students, an d LISREL W, the authors estimated a theoretically informed structural model that specifies a linkage between self-derogation in a school con text and subsequent academic failure that is mediated by a disposition to deviate from conventional expectations. The model is a specific ap plication in the school setting of a general model of deviant adaptati ons in response to context-specific self-devaluing experiences. Result s support the idea that academic failure, in part, is motivated behavi or that may be viewed as an adaptation to previous self-devaluing expe riences within a school context.