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Conscientiousness Is the Most Powerful Noncognitive Predictor of School Achievement in Adolescents

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Conscientiousness Is the Most Powerful Noncognitive Predictor of School Achievement in Adolescents Original Article Conscientiousness Is the Most Powerful Noncognitive Predictor of School Achievement in Adolescents Barbara Dumfart1 and Aljoscha C. Neubauer2 1Academy of Lower Austria, Sankt Pölten, Austria, 2Department of Psychology, University of Graz, Austria Abstract. Much research has demonstrated that intelligence and conscientiousness have a high impact on individual school achievement. To figure out if other noncognitive traits have incremental validity over intelligence and conscientiousness, we conducted a study on 498 eighth- grade students from general secondary schools in Austria. Hierarchical regressions for three criteria (GPA, science, and languages) were performed, including intelligence, the Big Five, self-discipline, grit, self-efficacy, intrinsic-extrinsic motivation, and test anxiety. Intelligence and conscientiousness alone accounted for approximately 40% in the variance of school achievement. For languages and GPA, no other personality and motivational predictors could explain additional variance; in science subjects, only self-discipline added incremental variance. We conclude that – in addition to intelligence as powerful cognitive predictor – conscientiousness is the crucial noncognitive predictor for school achievement and should be focused on when supporting students in improving their performance. Keywords: school achievement, intelligence, Big Five, motivation, anxiety Individual academic achievement in adolescents is deter- in the prediction of school achievement. Especially when it mined by various factors. Across different studies, one of comes to educational consulting, it is important to focus not the most important predictors is intelligence. Depending only on the rather unmalleable trait intelligence, but also on on the measure used, the average correlation between intel- intrapersonal strengths like personality and motivational ligence and school grades is about 0.5 (cf. Gustafsson & variables. Noncognitive variables might be easier to train Undheim, 1996; Laidra, Pullmann, & Allik, 2007). Some and more sensitive to intervention (Stankov, Lee, Luo, & studies show even higher relationships; in a 5-year prospec- Hogan, 2012). One of the central noncognitive variables tive longitudinal study of about 70.000 English children to predict school achievement is conscientiousness. In a (Deary, Strand, Smith, & Fernandes, 2007), a correlation meta-analysis it has been shown that conscientiousness is of 0.81 between the g factor of intelligence and a latent trait the most consistent and stable personality predictor for aca- of educational achievement was observed. Especially in demic achievement (Poropat, 2009). It combines various lower grades and nonselective comprehensive schools, traits which are crucial for successful learning: for example, intelligence explains the largest amount of variance in self-discipline, ambition, persistence, diligence, and dutiful- This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. American Psychological This document is copyrighted by the school achievement. At higher levels of education, such ness. The narrow traits of conscientiousness can predict This article is intended solely for the personal use of individual user and not to be disseminated broadly. as the tertiary educational system (college, university), academic achievement better than the broad trait (Paunonen intelligence is not as important anymore in the prediction & Ashton, 2001). Duckworth and Seligman (2005) found of achievement (Chamorro-Premuzic & Furnham, 2005; out that self-discipline accounted for more than twice as Jensen, 1980). This might go back to the restriction of range much variance as intelligence in school achievement and because intelligence has already served as selection learning behavior of eighth-grade students. However, this criterion for the admission to the higher educational track result could be partly due to the fact that the study was con- (Boekaerts, 1995). ducted in a selective school and the consequential range Intelligence generally seems to be more important for restriction of intelligence. achievement in science subjects than in languages. In sci- A conceptually related trait, which has lately been ence, logical analysis plays a great role, whereas in arts, researched, is grit, defined as the ‘‘perseverance and pas- especially in languages, traits like social confidence are sion for long-term-goals’’ (Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews, essential (Furnham, Rinaldelli-Tabaton, & Chamorro- & Kelly, 2007, p. 1). Grit integrates aspects of achievement Premuzic, 2011). striving, self-control, and consistency of interests and Even if intelligence is doubtlessly an important factor, encourages the realization of existing talents in an individual. there are many other variables which should be considered Duckworth et al. (2007) conducted several studies in Journal of Individual Differences 2016; Vol. 37(1):8–15 Ó 2016 Hogrefe Publishing DOI: 10.1027/1614-0001/a000182 B. Dumfart & A. C. Neubauer: Prediction of School Achievement in Adolescents 9 high-achieving persons and found out that grit was related to career, more research in earlier years of education is educational attainment and career stability. needed. In the present study, we include all of the described Openness and related traits, such as Typical Intellectual variables to find the best set of predictors for the school Engagement or Intellectual Curiosity,havealsoturnedout achievement of 13–14-year-old adolescents. In contrast to to be important for academic achievement. Students who most of the studies mentioned above, which only focus enjoy spending time with cognitively demanding tasks are on certain personality or motivational traits, our aim was more likely to perform well in school (Goff & Ackerman, to consider almost all variables that are often examined in 1992; Poropat, 2009; von Stumm, Hell, & Chamorro-Prem- the context of school achievement. It could be possible that uzic, 2011). On the other hand, extraversion turned out as a some of the discussed variables turn out as redundant when trait whose impact on academic achievement changes with simultaneously assessed with other (similar) traits.1 age. While extraversion might be beneficial for school We did not only include various predictors of school performance in earlier years of formal education, in higher achievement simultaneously, but also examined their levels of education it is negatively correlated with grades. impact on different criteria of school achievement, namely Thiscouldbetracedbacktothechanging–fromsocial GPA, and science versus languages. In this, we tested the to formal – character of school across different levels of predictive power of the broad personality traits of the big education (O’Connor & Paunonen, 2007). A similar pattern five but, additionally, also whether the – in this context is found for agreeableness: in primary school, it seems to most relevant narrow personality traits – allow for an incre- have relatively high impact on achievement, whereas it does mental prediction of the various school achievement indica- not play a role in later years of education (Laidra et al., tors. The results of this study should allow us to conclude 2007). which personality and motivational traits are most Most studies have found a negative relation between important for students who want to improve their achieve- neuroticism and academic achievement (Poropat, 2009). ment and should, therefore, be assessed in counseling If a student is very anxious, this might interfere with his contexts. attention to academic tasks and lead to poorer performance First, the relationships between school achievement and (De Raad & Schouwenburg, 1996). A trait which specifi- the selected personality and motivational variables shall be cally addresses this issue is test anxiety. It has been shown studied. Based on previous findings, we expect substantial that test anxiety is negatively correlated with academic relationships of the broad big five factors conscientiousness achievement at different educational levels (Hembree, and openness with school achievement (Laidra et al., 2007; 1988; Rindermann & Neubauer, 2001). Poropat, 2009). Furthermore, we assume relationships with In addition to the discussed personality traits, we also the narrow traits self-discipline, grit, test anxiety, self- considered motivational variables like self-efficacy and efficacy, and intrinsic (versus extrinsic) motivation (Caprara intrinsic versus extrinsic school motivation. Self-efficacy et al., 2011; Deci et al., 1991; Duckworth et al., 2007; is defined as ‘‘beliefs in one’s capabilities to mobilize the Duckworth & Seligman, 2005; Hembree, 1988). motivation, cognitive resources, and courses of action Second, the relative importance of the personality and needed to meet given situational demands’’ (Wood & motivation predictors compared to intelligence should be Bandura, 1989, p. 408). This trait plays a role in various life examined. Due to the characteristics of our sample that is areas; among others, it is associated with job search success not restricted in intellectual range, intelligence should have (Saks, 2006), career success (Abele & Spurk, 2009), and the highest impact on school achievement (Chamorro- academic achievement (Caprara, Vecchione, Alessandri, Premuzic & Furnham, 2005; Jensen, 1980). In this, we will & Barbaranelli, 2011). Intrinsic-extrinsic motivation is also explore the question if any of the selected personality
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