Researchers have long postulated the existence of a big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE) in which a student’s relative academic standing in class or school affects his or her academic self-concept. Few studies, however, use causal research designs to identify whether the BFLPE exists and whether it is generalizable across a wide variety of contexts. The goal of our study is to provide causal estimates of the BFLPE and examine whether the estimates differ by gender and national context. To fulfill our goal, we analyze cross-national TIMSS 2011 data using a cross-subject student-fixed effects model. Our results provide the strongest evidence to date that a sizeable BFLPE exists in STEM subjects regardless of gender and national context.

中文翻译：

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小池中的大鱼效应：来自33个国家和地区的证据

长期以来，研究人员一直假设存在大鱼小池塘效应 (BFLPE)，其中学生在课堂或学校中的相对学术地位会影响他或她的学术自我概念。然而，很少有研究使用因果研究设计来确定 BFLPE 是否存在以及它是否可以在各种背景下推广。我们研究的目标是提供 BFLPE 的因果估计，并检查估计是否因性别和国家背景而异。为了实现我们的目标，我们使用跨学科学生固定效应模型分析了跨国 TIMSS 2011 数据。我们的结果提供了迄今为止最有力的证据，表明无论性别和国家背景如何，STEM 科目中都存在大量的 BFLPE。