Relations between the development of school investment, self-confidence and language acievement in elementary education: A multivariate latent growth curve approach

Latent growth curve (LGC) analysis of longitudinal data for pupils' school investment, self confidence and language ability is presented. A multivariate model is tested that relates the three developmental processes to each other and to intelligence. All processes show significant differences between children in their developmental curves. The increase in language ability and the decrease in school investment correspond with the hypotheses. No hypothesis is formulated about self-confidence, but an increase for some and a decrease for others are found. The hypothesis that development in language ability, school investment, and self-confidence are mutually positively associated is supported, as is the hypothesis that intelligence accounts for some of the differences in language ability. School investment, self-confidence, and intelligence each explain a different part of development in language ability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2003 APA, all rights reserved)(journal abstract)