Sense of school membership, academic self-concept, and academic performance of immigrant youth in Hong Kong

Abstract

The purpose of this research study was to determine if the difference of academic performance, academic self-concept and sense of school membership is existed between Hong Kong students and Mainland immigrant students and determine if a correlation is existed between a sense of school membership and academic performance as well as between academic self-concept and academic performance. The sample consisted of 200 F6 students from 5 different secondary schools located in Tin Shui Wai. Among them, 130 students were local students and 70 students were immigrant students. The academic self-concept was measured by “Academic Self- Concept Scale” and sense of school membership was measured by “Psychological Sense of School Membership Scale”. Both of the scales were found to be reliable. Interestingly, the result showed that Hong Kong students are significantly higher in academic self-concept, sense of school membership, and academic performance than migrant students; meanwhile, academic self-concept and sense of school membership are positively correlated with academic performance. Result would be useful in understanding the situation of mainland immigrant students in academic performance, predicted by academic-self-concept and sense of school membership.