Revisiting the big five–academic performance association: a one-stage meta-analytic structural equation modeling reanalysis of 84 studies

TL;DR

This study reanalyzes 84 studies to better understand how personality traits relate to academic performance, finding that Conscientiousness is the strongest predictor.

Contribution

The study uses one-stage meta-analytic structural equation modeling to account for trait intercorrelations, revealing a unique negative link between Extraversion and academic performance.

Findings

Conscientiousness is the strongest predictor of academic performance (β = 0.199).

Extraversion shows a significant negative association (β = -0.062).

Agreeableness and Openness show small positive associations, while Neuroticism is not significant.

Abstract

Previous meta-analyses have consistently identified Conscientiousness as a robust predictor of academic performance, while findings for the other Big Five traits have been mixed or inconclusive. However, most existing meta-analytic evidence is based on zero-order correlations and does not account for the substantial intercorrelations among personality traits. Using a one-stage meta-analytic structural equation modeling (MASEM) approach, the present study reanalyzes data from 84 studies of university students (total N = 45,477) compiled in a previous meta-analysis to examine the unique associations between the Big Five traits and academic performance while explicitly modeling their shared variance. Conscientiousness remained the strongest predictor (β = 0.199, p < 0.001). Extraversion showed a significant negative association (β = −0.062, p < 0.001), whereas Agreeableness (β = 0.034, p = 0.046) and Openness (β = 0.060, p < 0.001) showed small positive associations. Neuroticism was not significant (β = −0.006, p = 0.771). Overall, the pattern is broadly consistent with prior meta-analytic evidence, but the structural model reveals a unique negative association for Extraversion that is not evident in zero-order correlations. This highlights the value of modeling the Big Five jointly when drawing inferences about personality–achievement relations.

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