Disentangling the Association Between the Big Five Personality Traits and Student Achievement: Meta-Analytic Evidence on the Role of Domain Specificity and Achievement Measures

Abstract

Students’ academic achievement is a central predictor of a long list of important educational outcomes, such as access to higher education and socioeconomic success. Prior studies have extensively focused on identifying variables that are related to academic achievement and an important variable in this context appears to be students’ personality. Notably, although findings from more recent studies suggested that the association between student achievement and personality varies by the subject domain (language vs. STEM) and the type of achievement measure (grades vs. test scores), systematic meta-analytical evidence is still lacking. To address this gap in the educational research literature, we conducted a meta-analysis based on 78 studies, with 1491 effect sizes representing data from 500,218 students and 110 samples from elementary to high school. We used a random-effects model with robust variance estimation to calculate mean effect sizes and standard deviations. We found moderating effects of measure or domain for all five personality traits, with differences in the direction of the effects. Our results highlight the importance of the domain and measure when examining how personality traits relate to academic achievement in school. The combination of subject domain and achievement was also found to be relevant for some of the traits. These findings emphasize that subject domains and types of achievement measures should be explicitly considered when investigating the personality saturation of student achievement. We discuss implications for future research, highlighting that there is no “best” or “more objective” achievement measure but, instead, that achievement measures should be chosen based on the research question of interest.

The moderating role of conscientiousness and gender in the relationship between perceived family atmosphere and academic performance in students from the city of Babylon, Iraq

“…Tackman et al (2019) also referred to the roles and functions of the family in fostering children's conscientiousness (Tackman et al, 2017). Furthermore, as Meyer et al (2023) pointed out, conscientiousness as a personality trait leads to behaviors such as active engagement in academic tasks and duties (Meyer et al, 2023). This sets the stage for conscientiousness to further strengthen the relationship between a positive emotional, emotional, and supportive family atmosphere and academic performance.…”

“…The moderating ability of conscientiousness in the relationship between perceived family atmosphere and academic performance lies in the role that conscientiousness plays according to the approach of the pervasive effect of personality traits on behaviors and decisions in different conditions (Ching, 2021). In fact, since conscientiousness facilitates behaviors such as active engagement in academic tasks and duties (Meyer et al, 2023), it has the ability to also affect the influence of family atmosphere on performance. Supporting this, Wang et al (2023) in their study showed that a variable like conscientiousness, by creating a sense of efficacy and individual identity, lays the groundwork for enhancing academic progress (Wang et al, 2023).…”

What I Do and What I Can Do: Testing the convergence and incremental validity of social, emotional, and behavioral skills vs. traits for predicting academic success

“…Previous research has linked both personality traits and SEB skills with academic performance. For example, meta-analyses of the Big Five traits and school grades have identified Conscientiousness as the most robust predictor of higher grades, with effects that generalize across education levels and geographic regions (Mammadov, 2022;Meyer et al, 2023;Poropat, 2009). As for SEB skills, meta-analyses have found that students exposed to social and emotional learning interventions tend to earn higher school grades, both immediately following the intervention and in subsequent years (Durlak et al, 2011;Taylor et al, 2017).…”

“…This conceptualization, and the present findings, suggest that SEB skills and traits may best predict different kinds of outcomes. Specifically, skills may best predict outcomes reflecting someone's thoughts, feelings, or behavior in specific, high-stakes situations, whereas traits may best predict outcomes that reflect the gradual accumulation of someone's behavior over time and across situations (Marcus et al, 2007;Meyer et al, 2023;Ployhart et al, 2001).…”

Are There Variations in Personality Traits Between Men and Women? The Evidence is from Indonesian Residents

“…Among the measurement for assessing non-cognitive skills in individuals are personality traits and commonly categorized to the big five personality traits. These five indicators including extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness to experience, and neuroticism, collectively offering valuable insights into an individual's character and disposition (Luo et al, 2023;Akbari et al, 2023;Meyer, et al, 2023;Vize et al, 2023).…”