Does positive behaviour facilitate self-concept or does positive self-concept facilitate behaviour?

![CDATA[The study examines whether students’ prior behaviour influences subsequent academic self-concept or prior self-concept influences subsequent behaviour at school. Students (N=774) from primary (3rd to 6th grades) and secondary students (7th to 10th grades) were asked to respond to survey items at two time points, 10 months apart. Two behaviour-related factors were Knowledge (knowing school rules) and Behaviour (following school rules). Two self-concept factors were Competence (sense of competence in schoolwork) and Affect (liking schoolwork). Confirmatory factor analysis supported an 8-factor model with the same four factors measured at two time points (T1, T2). Structural equation modelling found that in the light of strong association between parallel factors across time points, the paths from T1 Affect had noteworthy additional influences on T2 factors, although the paths were stronger for primary than secondary students. For primary students, T1 Knowledge had additional influences on T2 Competence, but this path was not significant for secondary students. It seems that both knowledge of rules and academic self-concept tend to be mutually reinforcing each other in primary education, such that both behaviour and self-concept should be attended to for primary students’ benefit. For secondary students, given the consistently stronger association between parallel factors across T1 and T2, it seems that positive gains in both behaviour and self-concept are harder to obtain. For both primary and secondary students, the consistently strong paths from T1 Affect to both behaviour and self-concept factors at T2 indicate that enabling students to enjoy schooling may be the key to success in facilitating both behaviour and self-concept.]]