SEX DIFFERENCES IN THE EFFECT OF ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT ON SELF-ESTEEM: A HONG KONG CASE

This paper reports a piece of research that is addressed to the controversial issue whether there are sex differences in the effect of academic achievement on self esteem. The study is a large scale survey based on a representative sample of all the secondary school students in Hong Kong. The results showed that male subjects generally had a higher score on self esteem than female ale subjects, and that while the self-esteem of male subjects were susceptible to the influence of academic achievement, the same was not true for their female counterparts. Similar findings were established in a recent study carried out in Norway. Explanations were given to account for the similarity.