This correlation study follows on the author's previous work (Osborne, 1995) showing that African-American boys, but not African-American girls or Whites, disidentify from academics over time. As in that earlier study, data regarding self-esteem and GPA were drawn from the National Education Longitudinal Study. This study, however, focused on Hispanic students in addition to White and African-American students, and data from 8th, 10th, and 12th grades were examined to see if girls might disidentify later in their school careers. Results showed that Whites had higher GPAs at each grade level and GPAs that were statistically equivalent across grades. GPAs for Hispanic students dropped across grade levels, and GPAs for African-American students showed that pattern even more strongly. However, Blacks had higher self-esteem at all three grade levels, and Hispanics had the lowest self-esteem in 8th grade but self-esteem higher than White students by 12th grade. The correlation between GPA and self-esteem was significant for all groups in 8th grade, but African-American boys showed a weakening correlation over time so that by 12th grade, GPA and self-esteem were not significantly related. There was some evidence of weakening correlations in Hispanic males between 8th and 12th grades, particularly in the domain of reading. These findings offer additional evidence that African-American boys tend to disidentify from academics over time.

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