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A meta‐analysis of adult‐rated child personality and academic performance in primary education
Author(s) -
Poropat Arthur E.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
british journal of educational psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.557
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 2044-8279
pISSN - 0007-0998
DOI - 10.1111/bjep.12019
Subject(s) - conscientiousness , psychology , openness to experience , agreeableness , personality , big five personality traits , developmental psychology , alternative five model of personality , hierarchical structure of the big five , meta analysis , academic achievement , clinical psychology , big five personality traits and culture , social psychology , extraversion and introversion , medicine
Background Personality is reliably associated with academic performance, but personality measurement in primary education can be problematic. Young children find it difficult to accurately self‐rate personality, and dominant models of adult personality may be inappropriate for children. Aims This meta‐analysis was conducted to determine the validity of the F ive‐ F actor M odel ( FFM ) of personality for statistically predicting children's academic performance. Sample Literature search identified 12 reports, with cumulative sample sizes ranging from 4,382 (19 correlations) to 5,706 (23 correlations) for correlations with Emotional Stability and Conscientiousness respectively. Method Hunter– S chmidt random‐effects meta‐analysis was used, and moderators were tested using sample‐weighted regression. Results When compared with self‐rated measures, adult‐rated Conscientiousness and Openness were more strongly correlated with academic performance, but adult‐rated Agreeableness was less strongly correlated. Q‐set‐based assessments had lower validity, which appeared to explain moderating effects of rating source. Moderating effects were not found for age, year of education (grades 1–7), or language within which the study was conducted. Conclusions Conscientiousness and Openness had two of the strongest correlations with academic performance yet reported, comparable with previous meta‐analytic correlations of academic performance with instructional quality, cognitive ability, and feedback. The FFM appears to be valid for educational research with children. Openness, which has no counterpart in models of children's temperament, should be further researched with children. Future research should examine the measurement of childhood personality, its relationship with intelligence, the extent to which it is malleable in primary education, and its causal relationship with academic performance.