Personality as a moderator of context effects on academic achievement

A A Jolijn Hendriks; Hans Kuyper; Miranda J Lubbers; Margaretha P C Van der Werf

doi:10.1016/j.jsp.2010.12.001

Personality as a moderator of context effects on academic achievement

J Sch Psychol. 2011 Apr;49(2):217-48. doi: 10.1016/j.jsp.2010.12.001. Epub 2011 Feb 17.

Authors

A A Jolijn Hendriks¹, Hans Kuyper, Miranda J Lubbers, Margaretha P C Van der Werf

Affiliation

¹ Groningen Institute for Educational Research (GION), University of Groningen, The Netherlands. a.a.j.hendriks@rug.nl

PMID: 21530765
DOI: 10.1016/j.jsp.2010.12.001

Abstract

We investigated whether personality moderates group influence of classmates on academic achievement and whether these so-called context effects can be attributed to peer pressure. The sample consisted of 2498 students in their first year of Dutch secondary education. The data were analyzed by a two-level (students within classes) analysis, separately for boys (n=1033, in 92 classes) and girls (n=1465, in 119 classes). For both sexes, we found a context effect on Dutch language achievement but not on mathematics achievement. Emotional Stability appeared a moderator of this context effect but for girls only. The results suggest further that peer pressure is not a likely mechanism of group influence of classmates on academic achievement.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Achievement*
Adolescent
Educational Status
Emotions*
Female
Humans
Male
Personality*
Schools
Sex Factors
Students