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Social comparison at school: Can GPA and personality mutually influence each other across time?
Author(s) -
NegruSubtirica Oana,
Pop Eleonora Ioana,
Crocetti Elisabetta,
Meeus Wim
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of personality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.082
H-Index - 144
eISSN - 1467-6494
pISSN - 0022-3506
DOI - 10.1111/jopy.12510
Subject(s) - agreeableness , openness to experience , psychology , neuroticism , personality , extraversion and introversion , big five personality traits , developmental psychology , longitudinal study , social psychology , clinical psychology , statistics , mathematics
Objective Being a student is an important social role youth play during adolescence and how they approach this role has critical implications for their future development. This three‐wave longitudinal study investigated the links between academic achievement (i.e., GPA) and personality traits, through the lens of social comparison mechanisms. Method Patterns of effects between students' GPA and personality traits were analyzed at group (i.e., comparing rank‐order differences at group‐level; group effects) and individual (i.e., scores are compared to a student's own mean; within‐person effects) levels. A total of 1,151 adolescents ( M age = 16.45 years; 58.7% female) participated in the study. Results Most effects we depicted were from GPA to personality traits. At the group‐level, higher GPA fostered students' Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Openness, while Openness reinforced high levels of GPA. At the individual level, GPA was a protective factor against negative affect, as it drove longitudinal decreases in Neuroticism. Conclusions GPA had a stronger role in personality formation when it reflected students' standing in the school compared to their peers (i.e., group effects) and to a lesser extent when it reflected changes at personal level (i.e., within‐person effects).