Premium
Discrepancy Between Self‐Report and School‐Record Grade Point Average: Correlates With Psychosocial Outcomes Among African American Adolescents 1
Author(s) -
Zimmerman Marc A.,
Caldwell Cleopatra Howard,
Bernat Debra Hilkene
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2002.tb01421.x
Subject(s) - psychosocial , psychology , academic achievement , distress , psychological distress , clinical psychology , african american , developmental psychology , social psychology , demography , mental health , psychiatry , ethnology , sociology , history
The purpose of this study is to better understand the implications for using self‐reported grade point average (GPA) versus school‐record GPA in academic achievement research. First, we found that nearly half the youths interviewed overreported their GPAs by at least 2 half grades. Second, youth who overreported their GPAs also reported less psychological distress, more successful academic beliefs, and fewer problem behaviors. Third, we found that self‐reported GPA was associated with all 3 sets of variables, but school‐record GPA was associated with only problem behaviors. The findings suggest that it may be useful for researchers to consider how different measures of GPA may influence their results.