Beyond grades: A meta-analysis of personality predictors of academic behavior in middle school and high school

Research on personality predictors of academic success is plentiful, with past research focusing primarily on college populations and studying traditional personality predictors, such as the Big Five, and traditional academic outcomes, namely GPA. However, less is known about lower grade levels and other outcomes. This meta-analysis examines research on personality and academic success in middle and high school to determine whether previous results generalize to this younger population and to examine less commonly studied predictors (Psychoticism, Emotional Intelligence) and less commonly studied academic behaviors including absenteeism, classroom engagement, homework, misconduct, prosocial behavior, and achievement test scores. The results confirm that personality functions similarly in adolescent students as in older populations for predicting grades (apart from Openness, which is a stronger predictor for the younger population), but also reveals that different sets of Big Five traits are needed to predict other types of academic outcomes.