Personality correlates of academic performance among a sample of Jamaican fifth form students

Abstract

This study sought to investigate the relationships existing among certain personality characteristics, the academic self-concept, and the academic achievement of Jamaican students in the Cambridge General Certificate of Education (GCE) O'Level examinations and the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) examinations. Data were collected from a questionnaire administered to 210 Fifth form (Grade 11) students from six secondary schools (two boys' schools, two girls' schools, and two co-educational schools) in both urban and rural areas of Jamaica. Results of the data analysis showed that: 1) Academic Self-Concept was the strongest correlate of Academic Performance for the total sample and the urban, rural, and female sub-samples; 2) Self-acceptance, Dominance, Authoritarianism, Sylbism, and Locus of Control contributed significantly to the explanation of variance in Academic Self-Concept; 3) School Anxiety, Authoritarianism, and Socio-Economic status improved the prediction in performance achieved by Academic Self-Concept; 4) significant sex differences emerged for Locus of Control and Academic Performance (males > females), and Neuroticism and Need for Achievement (female > males); 5) a significantly higher score on School Anxiety was obtained from students attending co-educational schools than for those in single-sex schools; and 6) rural and urban students differed significantly on School Anxiety and Performance (rural > urban)