The self-perception of skills: social background and educational choices

Abstract

This paper analyzes the effect of social background on students academic self-concept of their skills, once being controlled the objective skills. The perception is evaluated in two dimensions: speculum self-ranking and performance expectative. It works with a sample of 1,782 students from 10th grade in Barcelona derived from ISCY Project. Though bivariate and trivariate analysis of contingency tables and comparison of proportions, we find a slight over-optimism of skills, and a social background bias as embodied in an underestimation in students of low social background with high qualifications, especially for girls, and an overestimation in high social background students with low qualifications. It has also been analyzed how this bias may influence educational choices.