What Individual Difference And Social Context Veriables Predict University-level Academic Performance?

The present study was an on-line correlational survey study of 377 UT-Arlington undergraduates. It examined what personality variables predicted university-level academic performance over and above conscientiousness, after also controlling for gender and previous academic ability (that is, high school rank and SAT scores). I found that conscientiousness predicted university GPA after controlling for gender and previous academic ability (high school rank and SAT score). However, some of predictive validity of conscientiousness proved to be attributable to more specific predictors such as academic locus of control and self-expectancy (H1). Moreover, conscientiousness and self-motivation compensated for each other in predicting university GPA (H2), and self-expectancy interacted with self-insight to predict GPA, whereas family-expectancy did not (H3). Finally, the results of factor-level regressions revealed extraversion was marginally negatively correlated with GPA, whereas socioeconomic status (SES) and self-assertion were both positively correlated with GPA. Overall, the data indicate that both personality characteristics and social-context variables can be used to predict university students' academic performance, with a multiple R2 in the present sample of .245.