Temperament and Academic Achievement in Children: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract

This study aimed to systematize the diverse and rather controversial findings of empirical research on the relationship between the temperament and academic achievement of school children, as well as to determine the average effect size between these variables. We included 57 original studies of published and unpublished research conducted in 12 countries between 1985 and 2019, with cumulative sample size of 79,913 (varying from 6333 to 14,126 for links between particular temperament dimensions and specific domains of achievement). A random-effects and mixed-effects model was fitted to the data for the central tendency of the temperament–achievement relation and for analyzing moderators, respectively. The high heterogeneity of studies was tackled by selected specific moderators, namely, education level, transition status, family’s socio-economic level, and sources of report on achievement and temperament. The main findings of this meta-analysis affirmed the positive association of effortful control (EC) and inverse relationship of negative affectivity (NA) with a child’s academic performance, together with no apparent trend of surgency (SU) in this relationship; additionally, the sources of report significantly moderated the link between temperament and academic achievement.

The Association Between Temperament and Characteristics, Smartphone App Use Patterns and Academic Performance of University Students

“… 89 In particular, a strong tendency toward persistence can be observed in celebrities and famous athletes, 78 90 and it is an important temperamental cause of high performance in various fields. 91 Therefore, college students majoring in sports who are inquisitive but impulsive and easily bored show lower academic performance, whereas those with a more diligent and steady personality have higher academic performance.…”

More to the story than executive function: Effortful control soon after injury predicts long-term functional and social outcomes following pediatric traumatic brain injury in young children

“…Within typically developing children, components of EC appear relatively stable across early years of life (Gaertner et al, 2008;Kannass et al, 2006;Putnam et al, 2008), which is similar to the stability of EF over time (Zelazo & Carlson, 2012). Importantly, a large body of research documents associations of EC with socioemotional (see Eisenberg et al, 2005;Choe, 2021) and functional outcomes (Gal-Szabo et al, 2019;Nasvytienė & Lazdauskas, 2021;Obradović, 2010;Valiente et al, 2011) in children, including externalizing problem behaviors, internalizing symptoms, academic competence, and social competence. This pattern of associations is similar to that observed between EF and social/functional outcomes with respect to capturing cognitive control aspects of EF that are regulated by executive attention (Nigg, 2017;Zhou et al, 2012).…”

Temperament differences in boys and girls from 3 to 5 years old

“…Traditionally there is a certain consensus that this construct refers to individual differences in the reactivity and emotional regulation of each person and that it is a tendency of great biological content and therefore has continuity and temporal stability; therefore, temperament has two characteristics: heredity and its clear presence in early childhood. The EAS scale is the most widely used scale in studies that focus on the characteristics of early-appearing manner of being, The basic dimensions that it evaluates are: (a) emotionality or tendency to become easily and intensely activated (items 2, 6, 11, 15, 19); (b) activity, the preference for displaying a certain level of activity and speed of action (items 4, 7, 9, 13, 17); (c) sociability, the tendency to prefer the presence of other people or to remain alone (items 3,5,10,16,18). (b) shyness, the tendency to be inhibited in new social situations, this last characteristic is usually considered within sociability (1,8,12,14,20).…”

“…Nasvytiene and Lazdauskas 18 argue that temperament is the characteristic that emerges earliest in people and is relatively stable in the school years as it predisposes the child to interact with his or her environment in a particular and consistent way across diverse situations. The interest in the peculiar styles of functioning of the human species, especially the nature of emotional manifestations was present in Greek medicine.…”