649 Secondary Students (60.4% females and 39.6% males) were evaluated in different aspects of individuals' self-concept, in multidimensional perspective, in variables as: age, gender, socio-professional status, socio-cultural status, secondary level vocational choices; academic failures; participation in vocational guidance courses. It was used the Portuguese adaptation of the Self-Description Questionnaire III, from Marsh to evaluate self-concept. RESULTS: differences favoring the younger students in three academic dimensions, in total academic self-concepts, in Honesty/Reliability and Emotional Stability nonacademic dimensions; differences in Academic Self-Concept favors girls, Nonacademic Self-Concept favors boys; differences in Academic Self-Concept favoring those students from general vocational and scientific and technological courses, and in the Honesty/Reliability favoring the students from general vocational courses; differences in all dimensions of Academic Self-Concept and Honesty/Reliability favoring the students without academic failures; differences favored the Nonacademic Self-Concepts of those students who have participated in vocational guidance courses. Results were discussed and compared with those from previous studies in the Portuguese context.
Self-concept; secondary education level; difference
