The Big-fish-little-pond Effect for Reading Self-beliefs: A Cross-national Exploration with PISA 2018

Past research shows the Big-Fish-Little-Pond Effect (BFLPE; negative effect of school-average achievement on student-level self-concept) to generalize across countries. However, evidence is largely limited to math and science, limiting conclusions of universality to these subjects. Using data from Program for International Students Assessment 2018 (533,165 students, 72countries), the present study is the first to examine and provide robust evidence for the cross-national generalizability of the BFLPE for the reading self-concept of high school students (perceived competence and difficulty subscales). Consistent with our social-comparison perspective, we also show that the BFLPE is strong when the frame-of-reference for comparison is relative rather than absolute; the effect of school-average achievement was robust for difficulty experienced with reading in general (self-concept of perceived difficulty), but very weak fordifficulty experienced specifically during the PISA reading test (PISA test difficulty).Our findings extend support for the generalizability of the BFLPE to reading self-concept.Keywords: Big-fish-little-pond effect; reading self-concept; social comparison process; frame-of-reference;PISA