Which factors help young adults choose educational pathways leading to higher educational attainment? Academic self-concept (ASC), achievement, and socioeconomic background have all been found to be important predictors of postsecondary educational choices and success. Although research has shown that student composition in secondary school may affect some of these predictors, only a few studies (mostly from the United States) have investigated the effects of student composition on postsecondary educational outcomes. The results showed that students with similar individual achievement had lower postsecondary educational attainment if they graduated from secondary schools with higher mean achievement. It has been proposed that social comparison processes explain this negative context effect (big-fish-little-pond effect [BFLPE]). In contrast, students with the same individual socioeconomic status (SES) had higher postsecondary educational attainment if they graduated from secondary schools with a higher mean SES. In the present study, we investigated the effects of achievement-related and socioeconomic student composition on subsequent educational outcomes using data from a longitudinal study in Germany. Contrary to previous studies, our results showed that student composition had little relevance for later educational pathways. There was a small, long-lasting, indirect BFLPE of achievement-related composition in secondary school on postsecondary educational outcomes through students’ ASC. Furthermore, individual SES was strongly related to postsecondary educational outcomes, whereas being in an academic-track school with a higher or lower mean SES was not relevant for postsecondary educational pathways. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)

中文翻译：

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学校学生构成对年轻人教育途径的影响。

哪些因素有助于年轻人选择通向更高教育程度的教育途径？学术自我概念 (ASC)、成就和社会经济背景都被发现是高等教育选择和成功的重要预测因素。尽管研究表明中学学生的构成可能会影响其中一些预测因素，但只有少数研究（主要来自美国）调查了学生构成对中学后教育成果的影响。结果表明，如果从平均成绩较高的中学毕业，具有相似个人成绩的学生的中学后教育程度较低。有人提出社会比较过程可以解释这种负面的背景效应（大鱼小池塘效应 [BFLPE]）。相比之下，具有相同个人社会经济地位 (SES) 的学生如果从平均 SES 较高的中学毕业，则其中学后教育程度较高。在本研究中，我们使用德国纵向研究的数据调查了成就相关和社会经济学生构成对后续教育成果的影响。与之前的研究相反，我们的结果表明，学生构成与以后的教育途径几乎没有关系。通过学生的 ASC 对中学后教育成果的中学成绩相关构成有一个小的、持久的、间接的 BFLPE。此外，个人 SES 与中学后教育成果密切相关，而在平均 SES 较高或较低的学术轨道学校中与高等教育途径无关。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2020 APA，保留所有权利）