Validation of the Academic Self-Concept Scale in the Spanish University Context Granero-Gallegos, Antonio Baena Extremera, Antonio Escaravajal, Juan Carlos Fernández Baños, Raúl Self concept Academic confidence Academic effort Academic engagement Undergraduate Education The aims of this study were: (i) to provide evidence of reliability and validity regarding the dimensionality of the Spanish version of two correlated subscales measuring Academic Self-Concept (ASC); (ii) to analyze factorial invariance according to sex and the educational level; (iii) to analyze a higher-order model from the two ASC subscales; and (iv) to study the predictive relationship of the ASC to academic engagement. An observational, descriptive, and cross-sectional study was designed in which 681 undergraduate university students (Mage = 24.55; SDage = 5.35) (58% girls) and students of the Master’s in Teacher Education participated. The scale’s psychometric properties were analyzed using different exploratory and confirmatory analyses demonstrating that this instrument with two correlated factors (academic confidence and academic effort) is valid, reliable, and invariant in terms of gender and academic level. Higher-order factors from the two correlated factors showed an excellent goodness-of-fit. A regression model with latent variables was conducted showing a higher and positive prediction of academic self-concept for the two factors of academic engagement (willingness to study and satisfaction with studies). The ASC has shown itself to be a valid and reliable instrument for use with Spanish university students and may be of special interest, both to teachers and to the students themselves, as it allows us to reflect on the importance of developing confidence and effort during the students’ academic lives. 2021-10-20T06:28:03Z 2021-10-20T06:28:03Z 2021 info:eu-repo/semantics/article Granero-Gallegos, A.; Baena-Extremera, A.; Escaravajal, J.C.; Baños, R. Validation of the Academic Self-Concept Scale in the Spanish University Context. Educ. Sci. 2021, 11, 653. https://doi.org/10.3390/ educsci11100653 http://hdl.handle.net/10481/70984 10.3390/educsci11100653 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Atribución 3.0 España MDPI