Ability self-concept (SC) and self-efficacy (SE) are central competence-related self-perceptions that affect students’ success in educational settings. Both constructs show conceptual differences but their empirical differentiation in higher education has not been sufficiently demonstrated. In the present study, we investigated the empirical differentiation of SC and SE in higher education with N = 1,243 German psychology students (81% female; age M = 23.62 years), taking into account central methodological requirements that, in part, have been neglected in prior studies. SC and SE were assessed at the same level of specificity, only cognitive SC items were used, and multiple academic domains were considered. We modeled the structure of SC and SE taking into account a multidimensional and/or hierarchical structure and investigated the empirical differentiation of both constructs on different levels of generality (i.e., domain-specific and domain-general). Results supported the empirical differentiation of SC and SE with medium-sized positive latent correlations (range r = .57 - .68) between SC and SE on different levels of generality. The knowledge about the internal structure of students’ SC and SE and the differentiation of both constructs can help us to develop construct-specific and domain-specific intervention strategies. Future empirical comparisons of the predictive power of SC and SE can provide further evidence that both represent empirical different constructs.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected schooling worldwide. In many places, schools closed for weeks or months, only part of the student body could be educated at any one time, or students were taught online. Previous research discloses the relevance of schooling for the development of cognitive abilities. We therefore compared the intelligence test performance of 424 German secondary school students in Grades 7 to 9 (42% female) tested after the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic (i.e., 2020 sample) to the results of two highly comparable student samples tested in 2002 (n = 1506) and 2012 (n = 197). The results revealed substantially and significantly lower intelligence test scores in the 2020 sample than in both the 2002 and 2012 samples. We retested the 2020 sample after another full school year of COVID-19-affected schooling in 2021. We found mean-level changes of typical magnitude, with no signs of catching up to previous cohorts or further declines in cognitive performance. Perceived stress during the pandemic did not affect changes in intelligence test results between the two measurements.