Herbert W Marsh
Biographic Data
| ID | 135402 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Herbert W Marsh |
| GIVEN NAMES | Herbert W |
| FAMILY NAME | Marsh |
| SIGNATURE | MARSH H W |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Oxford |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1078-9717 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 261 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1733 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 261 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1977 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 21 |
Throwing Out the Bathwater but Keeping the Baby
The 65th anniversary of Campbell and Fiske’s multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) framework provides a timely opportunity to revisit and modernize this foundational model for construct validation. Although structural-equation-modeling-based MTMM approaches have enhanced the field, their widespread application remains constrained by convergence problems, ambiguous trait-method distinctions, and a lack of consensus regarding optimal model specifications. …
On Model Interpretability and Time-Reversal Testing in Analyses of Reciprocal Effects
Núñez-Regueiro et al. (2025) recently demonstrated that the alternative models used by Sorjonen et al. (2025a) to reject the reciprocal effects model (REM) contained misspecifications that, when addressed, yielded results consistent with the REM. In a reply to our critique, Sorjonen et al. (2025b) defended their original models as valid modeling approaches. They further proposed time-reversal tests, which they interpreted as contradicting the REM…
I Feel Competent, Therefore I Am
Do perceptions about one’s competence shape learning, or are they simply reflections of actual skills? This study revisits this longstanding question by replicating and extending preliminary findings by Marsh et al. (2024) on the temporal dynamics linking students’ academic self-concept (i.e., their perceived academic competence) and their academic skills. Using longitudinal data from a large-scale field study (N > 9000 students, 3 measurement po…
Investigating the effects of class average achievement
We test the effects of class-average achievement and teaching quality on students. • Controlling for pre-selection effects strengthened the Big-Fish-little-pond-effect. • Controlling for pre-selection effects weakened the peer spillover effect. • Teacher enthusiasm and classroom management had little added value for achievement. • High class-average achievement does not benefit students’ achievement or self-concept. Research has shown positive ef…
Psychological need satisfaction and behavioral engagement reciprocally enhance each other—Unless one’s teacher is perceived to be highly controlling
Psychological need satisfaction energizes behavioral engagement, but behavioral engagement may also create the conditions to experience psychological need satisfaction.Recognizing this possible reciprocal relation and using a self-determination theory framework, we used a within-subjects research design to assess the reciprocal effects of student need satisfaction and their behavioral engagement under three conditions: low, moderate, and high per…
School leader well-being under pressure
School leaders are experiencing increasing job demands, high turnover, burnout, and declining well-being. Given the critical role school leaders play in our community, it is crucial to explore the factors contributing to and protecting from these issues. Guided by the Job Demands-Resources Model, this study examines the complex interplay between emotional demands, quantitative demands, resilience, burnout, and job satisfaction among school leader…
Bystanders tend to defend victims in a supportive classroom climate
When bystanders reinforce bullies, bullying tends to escalate; when bystanders defend victims, bullying tends to de-escalate. Recognizing this pattern, we adopted a social-ecological perspective within a self-determination theory framework to conduct two studies. Study 1 was a pre-registered cluster randomized control trial in which 38 Korean secondary teachers (9 females, 29 males; 19 experimental, 19 control) participated in an intervention to …
Parents’ academic expectations and aspirations predict students’ achievement emotions
Teaching with confidence
This study investigated the causal impact of gains in teacher self-efficacy (TSE) on educational outcomes within a Social Cognitive Theory framework. In a 3-wave longitudinal randomized control trial with 91 secondary teachers in Korea, the experimental group received skill-based training (in autonomy-supportive teaching). As expected, the intervention significantly improved both autonomy-supportive teaching and TSE at mid-year. Structural equati…
The Equality Paradox
Individuals’ subjective well-being (SWB) is an important marker of development and social progress. As psychological health issues often begin during adolescence, understanding the factors that enhance SWB among adolescents is critical to devising preventive interventions. However, little is known about how institutional contexts contribute to adolescent SWB. Using Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2015 and 2018 data from 78 c…
Longitudinal reciprocal effects of agentic engagement and autonomy support
How the predictors of math achievement change over time
Researchers have focused extensively on understanding the factors influencing students’ academic achievement over time. However, existing longitudinal studies have often examined only a limited number of predictors at one time, leaving gaps in our knowledge about how these predictors collectively contribute to achievement beyond prior performance and how their impact evolves during students’ development. To address this, we employed machine learn…
Developmental trajectories of achievement emotions in mathematics during adolescence
This study examined how adolescents' emotions in mathematics develop over time. Growth curve modeling was applied to longitudinal data collected annually from 2002 to 2006 (Grades 5–9; N = 3425 German adolescents; Mage = 11.7, 15.6 years at the first and last waves, respectively; 50.0% female). Results indicated that enjoyment and pride decreased over time (Glass's Δs = −.86, −.71). In contrast, negative emotions exhibited more complex patterns: …
Students’ emotion regulation and school-related well-being
There is a lack of research examining how students’ emotion regulation is linked to their wellbeing at school. To address this gap in the current literature, we examined reciprocal relations between two important emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) and school-related wellbeing over 12 months across two school years. We collected data from 2,365 secondary and upper secondary students in England (aged 11…
Individualized teacher frame of reference and student self-concept within and between school subjects
Helm F, Wolff F, Möller J, Zitzmann S, Marsh HW, Dicke T. Individualized teacher frame of reference and student self-concept within and between school subjects. Journal of Educational Psychology . 2023;115(2):309-329
Achievement emotions and elementary school children’s academic performance
Achievement emotions have received increasing attention in research on adolescence and young adulthood, but little is known about these emotions in the early years of schooling.Studies addressing the development of different achievement emotions and their linkages with achievement during these years are largely lacking.The present longitudinal study aimed to fill this gap by examining the development of enjoyment, boredom, and anxiety in mathemat…
Extending the reciprocal effects model of math self-concept and achievement
Towards a multidimensional measure of well-being
This study supports the WB-Pro validity and usefulness in studying well-being and for professional psychological applications to assess well-being in both individuals and groups
School socioeconomic status context and social adjustment in children
Social adjustment is critical to educational and occupational attainment. Yet little research has considered how the school's socioeconomic context is associated with social adjustment. In a longitudinal sample of Australian 4- to 8-year-olds ( N = 9369; 51% boys) we tested the association between school average socioeconomic status and social skills (parent and teacher reported). Models controlled for age 4 social adjustment and additional covar…
Cluster randomized control trial to reduce peer victimization
Peer victimization is a worldwide crisis unresolved by 50 years of research and intervention. We capitalized on recent methodological advances and integrated self-determination theory with a social-ecological perspective. We provided teachers with a professional development experience to establish a highly supportive classroom climate that enabled the emergence of pro-victim student bystanders during bullying episodes. In our longitudinal cluster…
The roles of social–emotional skills in students’ academic and life success
41); (b) inclusion of multi-informant ratings substantially enhanced the ability of social-emotional skills in predicting outcome variables, with parent- and self-rated skills playing important, unique roles; (c) by modeling skills at the facet level rather than at the domain level, we identified the key skills for different outcomes and found significant variation in facets' predictive utility even within the same domain; and (d) although the ol…
Mastery-approach goals
595,444 adolescents) to examine the relations of MAP goals to four antecedents (workmastery, competitiveness, fear of failure, fixed mindset) and 16 consequences (task-specific motivational, achievement-related, and well-being outcomes), and tested the cross-cultural generalizability of these relations. Results showed that MAP goals were: (a) grounded primarily in positive but not negative achievement motives/beliefs; (b) most strongly predictive…
A three-dimensional taxonomy of achievement emotions
We present a three-dimensional taxonomy of achievement emotions that considers valence, arousal, and object focus as core features of these emotions. By distinguishing between positive and negative emotions (valence), activating and deactivating emotions (arousal), and activity emotions, prospective outcome emotions, and retrospective outcome emotions (object focus), the taxonomy has a 2 × 2 × 3 structure representing 12 groups of achievement emo…
School autonomy policies lead to increases in principal autonomy and job satisfaction
We explore whether decentralization of decision-making influences school principals’ subjective experience of autonomy, job demands, burnout, and job satisfaction. Using six-years of longitudinal data, we used two Australian education reforms as a natural experiment of the effect of decentralization. Exploiting state-to-state variation in the policies, we used difference-in-differences models, finding that the decentralization policies had a smal…
Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling in Second Language Research
This study offers methodological synergy in the examination of factorial structure in second language (L2) research. It illustrates the effectiveness and flexibility of the recently developed exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) method, which integrates the advantages of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) into one complete measurement model. Two sets of data were collected using the L2 Passion Scal…
Goodness-of-fit indexes in confirmatory factor analysis
Application of confirmatory factor analysis to the study of self-concept
Big-Fish--Little-Pond effect on academic self-concept
Academically selective schools are intended to affect academic self-concept positively, but theoretical and empirical research demonstrates that the effects are negative. The big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE), an application of social comparison theory to educational settings, posits that a student will have a lower academic self-concept in an academically selective school than in a nonselective school. This study, the largest cross-cultural st…
Age and sex effects in multiple dimensions of self-concept
Les effets de l'âge et du sexe sur l'evolution du concept de soi depuis la pre-adolescence jusqu'a l'âge adulte sont analyses a partir de 3 questionnaires d'auto-description (SDQI) portant sur 12266 sujets et les resultats discutes en relation avec les operationalisations de Shavelson et al. (1976
Academic self-concept and academic achievement
BACKGROUND. A positive self-concept is valued as a desirable outcome in many disciplines of psychology as well as an important mediator to other outcomes. AIMS. The present review examines support for the reciprocal effects model (REM) that posits academic self-concept (ASC) and achievement are mutually reinforcing, each leading to gains in the other - and its extension to other achievement domains. METHOD. We review theoretical, methodological, …
Choosing a multivariate model
It is suggested that Akaike's information criterion cannot be used for model selection in real applications and that there are problems attending the definition of parsimonious fit indices. A normed function of the noncentrality parameter is recommended as an unbiased absolute goodness-of-fit index, and the Tucker-Lewis index and a new unbiased counterpart of the Bentler-Bonett index are recommended for those investigators who might wish to evalu…
Determinants of student self-concept
Achievement, motivation, and educational choices
Drawing on the expectancy-value model, the present study explored individual and gender differences in university entry and selection of educational pathway (e.g., science, technology, engineering, and mathematics [STEM] course selection). In particular, we examined the multiplicative effects of expectancy and task values on educational outcomes during the transition into early adulthood. Participants were from a nationally representative longitu…
Employment During High School
The present investigation tested theoretical perspectives about the effects of working during the sophomore, junior, and senior years of high school using the large, nationally representative High School and Beyond (HSB) study. Dropping out of high school was associated with hours worked during the sophomore year even after background variables and sophomore outcomes were controlled for. For continuing students, total hours worked during high sch…
Measurement invariance of big-five factors over the life span
This substantive-methodological synergy applies evolving approaches to factor analysis to substantively important developmental issues of how five-factor-approach (FFA) personality measures vary with gender, age, and their interaction. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) conducted at the item level often do not support a priori FFA structures, due in part to the overly restrictive assumptions of CFA models. Here we demonstrate that exploratory st…
Negative item bias in ratings scales for preadolescent children
Verbal and Math Self-Concepts
The purpose of this investigation is to examine empirical support for the internal/external (I/E) frame of reference model that describes the relation between Verbal and Math self-concepts, and between these academic self-concepts and verbal and math achievement. The empirical tests are based on all studies (n = 6,010; age range = 7–35+ years) that have employed the Self Description Questionnaire (SDQ), SDQII, or SDQ III self-concept instruments.…
Positive and negative global self-esteem
An integrated model of academic self-concept development
Our newly proposed integrated academic self-concept model integrates 3 major theories of academic self-concept formation and developmental perspectives into a unified conceptual and methodological framework. Relations among math self-concept (MSC), school grades, test scores, and school-level contextual effects over 6 years, from the end of primary school through the first 5 years of secondary school (a representative sample of 3,370 German stude…
Adolescents’ Perceptions of Masculine and Feminine Values in Sport and Physical Education
Fear of failure
Fear of failure is examined from a need achievement perspective and in the context of research amongst high school and university students. Theory and data suggest that fear of failure can be separated into two camps: overstriving and self-protection. Although each has yields in terms of achievement or in terms of self-protection, they render the academic process an uncertain one for students marked by anxiety, low resilience, and vulnerability t…
The Effects of Participation in Sport during the Last Two Years of High School
The effects of participation in sport during the last 2 years of high school were examined by use of the nationally (United States) representative High School and Beyond data collected between 1980 and 1984. After background variables and outcomes collected during the sophomore year of high school were controlled for, sport participation positively affected 14 of 22 senior and postsecondary outcomes (e.g., social and academic self-concept, educat…
Global self-esteem
Top-down, bottom-up, and horizontal models
A new structural equation modeling approach to questions of the direction of causal flow between global and specific multidimensional measures of self-concept (SC) in two 2-wave, longitudinal studies demonstrated that (a) higher order factors were unable to explain relations among first-order factors at Time 1 (T1), at Time 2 (T2), or between T1 and T2; (b) T1 global SC had little effect on specific SC factors at T2 (a top-down model), but specif…
Failure of High-Ability High Schools to Deliver Academic Benefits Commensurate With Their Students’ Ability Levels
Emphasizing a psychological perspective of social comparison processes, the author ( Marsh, 1987 ; Marsh & Parker, 1984 ) found school-average ability to be negatively associated with academic self-concepts. Emphasizing a sociological perspective of school context effects, Alwin and Otto (1977) reported school-average ability to be negatively associated with educational and occupational aspirations. The present investigation brings together these…
Exploring commitment and turnover intentions among teachers
Longitudinal multilevel models of the big-fish-little-pond effect on academic self-concept
Longitudinal multilevel path models (7,997 students, 44 high schools, 4 years) evaluated effects of school-average achievement and perceived school status on academic self-concept in Hong Kong, which has a collectivist culture with a highly achievement-segregated high school system. Consistent with a priori predictions based on the big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE), higher school-average achievements led to lower academic self-concepts (contras…
Breaking the double-edged sword of effort/trying hard
Ever since the classic research of Nicholls (1976) and others, effort has been recognized as a double-edged sword: while it might enhance achievement, it undermines academic self-concept (ASC). However, there has not been a thorough evaluation of the longitudinal reciprocal effects of effort, ASC, and achievement, in the context of modern self-concept theory and statistical methodology. Nor have there been developmental equilibrium tests of wheth…
Longitudinal Structural Equation Models of Academic Self-Concept and Achievement
Longitudinal causal models of growth in math and English constructs (school grades, standardized tests, academic self-concept, affect and coursework selection) were based on three waves of data from the large (N = 24,599), nationally representative National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988. Math and English self-concepts had significant path coefficients leading to subsequent school grades, coursework selection, and standardized test scores. …
Self-concept
The Validity of Students' Evaluations
Graduating seniors nominated instructors in their major departments who were “most outstanding” or “least outstanding.” The following academic year, evaluations of 62 instructors, 31 “most outstanding” and 31 “least outstanding,” were selected from all courses evaluated as part of a university-wide program of instructional evaluation. Although retrospective nominations of graduating seniors were experimentally independent and differed in nature f…
The Validity of Students’ Evaluations
Graduating seniors nominated instructors in their major departments who were “most outstanding” or “least outstanding.” The following academic year, evaluations of 62 instructors, 31 “most outstanding” and 31 “least outstanding,” were selected from all courses evaluated as part of a university-wide program of instructional evaluation. Although retrospective nominations of graduating seniors were experimentally independent and differed in nature f…
Natural anchoring at the neutral point of category rating scales
Class Size, Students’ Evaluations, and Instructional Effectiveness
Students’ evaluations of instructional effectiveness were collected in two different university settings (N = 1,341 classes), while faculty self-evaluations of their own teaching were also collected in one of these settings (N = 190 classes). The magnitude of the class-size effect depended upon the specific component of the evaluations being considered. The effect was large for Quality of Group Interaction, but was small for 10 other components i…
Class Size, Students' Evaluations, and Instructional Effectiveness
Students’ evaluations of instructional effectiveness were collected in two different university settings (N = 1,341 classes), while faculty self-evaluations of their own teaching were also collected in one of these settings (N = 190 classes). The magnitude of the class-size effect depended upon the specific component of the evaluations being considered. The effect was large for Quality of Group Interaction, but was small for 10 other components i…
Academic Productivity and Faculty Supplemental Income
Additional informationNotes on contributorsHerbert W. MarshHerbert W. Marsh is lecturer in measurement and evaluation, Department of Education, University of Sydney.Kristine E. DillonKristine E. Dillon is associate director of the Ethical and Economics Project and project director of Evaluation and Planning for the Office of Institutional Studies, University of Southern California
The Influence of Student, Course, and Instructor Characteristics in Evaluations of University Teaching
This study examined the relationship between student evaluations and a set of 16 background characteristics (e.g., class size, expected grade, reason for taking course, etc). Class average responses in 511 undergraduate courses taught by a total of 221 different instructors were analyzed. Each separate background variable generally explained less than 5 percent of the variance in any one student evaluation score, and there was little nonlinearity…
Prior Subject Interest, Students' Evaluations, And Instructional Effectiveness
Students' Prior Subject Interest in a course showed similar correlations with student ratings of instructional effectiveness in two university settings (N = 1102 classes). Correlations between Prior Subject Interest and different dimensions of instructional effectiveness varied from approximately zero to .44. Though these correlations were not high, Prior Subject Interest predicted student ratings better than any of 15 other student/course/instru…
Faculty Earnings Compared with Those of Nonacademic Professionals
Additional informationNotes on contributorsKristine E. DillonKristine E. Dillon is associate director, Ethical and Economic Issues Project, and associate director, Management Information and Studies, Office of University Budget, University of Southern California.Herbert W. MarshHerbert W. Marsh is lecturer in measurement and evaluation, Department of Education, University of Sydney, Australia
The Relative Influence of Course Level, Course Type, and Instructor on Students' Evaluations of College Teaching
College students (N = 1,374) evaluated teaching effectiveness both at the end of each course (N = 100) and again 1 year after graduation. Mean end-of-term ratings were similar to those collected after graduation, and the two sets of ratings were highly correlated (median r = .83). The purpose of this study was to determine the relative contribution of course level (undergraduate vs. graduate), course type (accounting, economics, finance, etc.), a…
Factors Affecting Students' Evaluations of the Same Course Taught by the Same Instructor on Different Occasions
Correlations between student ratings of the same course taught by the same instructor on two different occasions (n = 341 pairs of courses) were high (mean r = .71), but were lower than the reliabilities of the ratings (mean r = .93); much reliable variance was unique to a particular course offering. This study investigates factors that might explain this unique variance. For each pair of courses, the more favorably evaluated tended to be: (1) th…
Factors Affecting Students’ Evaluations of the Same Course Taught by the Same Instructor on Different Occasions
Correlations between student ratings of the same course taught by the same instructor on two different occasions (n = 341 pairs of courses) were high (mean r = .71), but were lower than the reliabilities of the ratings (mean r = .93); much reliable variance was unique to a particular course offering. This study investigates factors that might explain this unique variance. For each pair of courses, the more favorably evaluated tended to be: (1) th…
Seeq
This study describes research leading to the development and implementation of SEEQ (Students' Evaluations of Educational Quality). SEEQ is an instrument and programme for collecting students' evaluations of college/university teaching. The paper indicates that SEEQ measures nine distinct components of teaching effectiveness that have been identified in both student ratings and faculty self evaluations of their own teaching. Reliability is good w…
Multitrait-Multimethod Analysis
Multitrait-multimethod analysis is designed to assess convergent and discriminant validity, and to also detect method/halo effects. However, the distinction between discriminant validity and method/halo effect is ambiguous when the relationship between the observed measures and underlying traits is unclear. The purpose of this study is to compare MTMM analyses performed on items and factor scores derived from the items. MTMM analyses of the indiv…
Multitrait-Multimethod Analyses of the Self-Description Questionnaire
The Self-description Questionnaire is a multidimensional instrument designed to measure seven facets of self-concept hypothesized in Shavelson’s hierarchical model. Fifth and sixth grade students (n = 654) completed the SDQ and several other instruments. Factor analysis of their responses clearly demonstrated the seven factors that the SDQ was designed to measure. Teachers were also asked to evaluate each student’s self-concept along the same sev…
Self-concept
Preadolescent Self-concept
The purpose of this study is to relate student self-concept in seven different areas to teacher ratings of student self-concept in the same areas and to academic ability. The results from three diverse samples are considered (total N = 958 students). Student-teacher agreement on student self-concept varied from modest (r = 0.24 for Relationship With Parents) to good (r = 0.52 for Mathematics Self-concept) for the seven self-concept dimensions (me…
Students' evaluations of university teaching
Self Description Questionnaire Iii
This research examines the validity of self‐concept interpretations of scores from a new instrument for use with university‐aged respondents. The Self Description Questionnaire III (SDQ III) was designed to measure 13 factors of self‐concept, and these dimensions were identified with conventional and confirmatory factor analyses. In two different studies, the reliabilities of the 13 factors were high (median alpha = 0.89) and correlations among t…
Self-Concept, Social Comparison, and Ability Grouping
Self-concept, like other psychological impressions, is relativistic and depends on some frame of reference. In educational settings, for example, the other students in the same classroom serve as one basis of comparison. According to the frame of reference model, academic self-concept will depend on a student’s own academic ability and the ability levels of other students within the same class. Thus academic self-concept is expected to vary with …
Self-Concept, Social Comparison, and Ability Grouping
Self-concept, like other psychological impressions, is relativistic and depends on some frame of reference. In educational settings, for example, the other students in the same classroom serve as one basis of comparison. According to the frame of reference model, academic self-concept will depend on a student’s own academic ability and the ability levels of other students within the same class. Thus academic self-concept is expected to vary with …
Experimental Manipulations of University Student Motivation and Their Effects on Examination Performance
S ummary . Students (N = 416) viewed a videotaped lecture and then completed an objective examination based upon the lecture. The lecture was experimentally manipulated to vary in content coverage (the number of test questions covered) and the expressiveness with which it was delivered. Different groups of students received no external incentive to do well, were told before the lecture that they would receive money for each correctly answered que…
The Factorial Invariance of Student Evaluations of College Teaching
University instructors who taught the same course at least four times over a 4-year period were evaluated by different groups of students in each of these four classes (N = 316 instructors, 1,264 classes, 31,322 students). Factor analyses of the class average ratings clearly replicated the nine evaluation dimensions found in earlier studies. A multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) matrix was formed in which the nine dimensions were the multiple traits, a…
Determinants of student self-concept
Self-Concept
The construct, self-concept, has been evoked to explain overt behavior across a wide spectrum of situations, and the attainment of a positive self-concept has been posited as a desirable goal in personality and child development, in clinical treatments, and in education. Its importance notwithstanding, research and evaluations using self-concept have suffered from imprecise theoretical formulation of the construct and inadequate measurement instr…
Psychology (243 works) · Social Psychology (153 works) · Developmental psychology (123 works) · Mathematics education (105 works) · Mathematics (102 works) · Education, Achievement, and Giftedness (101 works) · Statistics (93 works) · Structural equation modeling (75 works) · Computer Science (74 works) · Academic achievement (69 works)