Comparisons of parents', teachers', and students' perceptions of self-concept in children from one- and two-parent families.

Summary .-I9 pairs of third grade children from intact and single-parent families matched for sex, intellectual ability, and academic achievement were administered a brief self-concept measure. Teachers and parents rated the students' self-concept on similar measures. There were no significant differences in scores between the groups; however, within each group the teachers and parents consistently overestimated students' self-esteem. Many psychologists and educators have expressed more concern over the effects of divorce on the emotional well-being of children (Young & Parish, 1977; Burns & Brassard, 1982) than of children from intact families. Research bv Pardeck and Izihoff (19831 and Horns and Abbott . . (1985) suggests that children in divorced families do not perceive themselves quite as negatively as the previous studies might indicate. The present study sought to compare parents', teachers', and children's evaluations of self-concept with matched groups of children from intact and nonintact homes. Method.-Subjects were 38 third grade students, matched on achievement, intellectual ability, and sex (half living in one-parent families and half living in two-parent families). There were eight boys and 11 girls in each group. One-parent students lived in a one-parent home for at least two years, with the average being 4.1 yr. The subjects were white and could be characterized as largely coming from lower/middle-class homes. Self-concept was assessed on the Evaluation of School Functioning Index of Smith (1970). The instrument taps students', teachers', and parents' evaluations of students' school functioning. All scales have 25 statements. The rater determines whether the statement is true or false as they pertain to the student named. Based on the number of responses considered to indicate favorable school hnctioning a coral score reflective of self-concept is obtained (the higher the score the better the self-concept). Test-retest reliability correlations (1-wk. interval) for three scores ranged from .82 for the Student's Self-evaluation of School Functioning to .92 for the Parent's Evaluation of Student's School Functioning and to .93 for the Teacher's Evaluation of Student's School Functioning, and a concurrent validity correlation of .47 was obtained when the student's self-evaluation was compared to the Purdue Self-concept Scale. Individual school records were reviewed for information on achievement and abilitv so that one-parent students could be matched with two-parent students. The student's selfevaluation was administered to all students in the four third grade classrooms. The examiner read the statements so students' reading skills would not affect response to the statements. Only data collected from those students with parental permission to participate were used. Teachers completed ratings on only those students in the study. The three scales were then scored. Mean scores for the one-parent group were compared 'The authors thank the Facult Committee for Research and Creative Endeavors for their support. Reprint requests shouldYbe sent to 102 Sloan Hall, Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant, MI 48859. A longer report is on file in Document NAPS-04711. Remit $7.75 for photocopy or $4.00 for fiche to Microfiche Publications, POB 3513, Grand Central Station, New York, NY 10017.