Morningness and state academic self-concept in students: Do early birds experience themselves as more competent in daily school life?

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the role of circadian preference for students’ state academic self-concept (ASC). We focused on students’ tendency to be morning-oriented (i.e., morningness) and examined the association between morningness as a trait and mean levels of state (momentary) general-school ASC in everyday school life using intensive longitudinal data collected among N = 285 (N_obs = 6,140; M_lessons = 21.54) German ninth and tenth graders. Furthermore, we tested whether the strength of this relation between morningness and state general-school ASC was modulated by the time of day (i.e., synchrony effect). Results of multilevel analyses showed that morningness was positively related to students’ mean levels of state general-school ASC. However, our results refuted a synchrony effect on state ASC, as higher morningness related to equally high mean levels of state general-school ASC both early and late in the school day with respect to a typical school schedule with lessons occurring in the morning to early afternoon. The present findings contribute to our understanding of ASC and provide relevant information about how morningness should be positioned with regard to ASC in everyday school life.