Good learners or trouble makers? Study on the relationship between academic performance and antisocial behavior of junior high school students

PLoS One. 2024 Jan 2;19(1):e0295705. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0295705. eCollection 2024.

Abstract

The school bullying incident has aroused widespread concern in current society. How to manage students' anti-social behavior has become an increasingly serious problem for administrators. This study uses a sample of 8270 junior high school students to examine the mechanism of academic achievement on students' antisocial behavior. The results showed that academic performance has a U-shaped impact on antisocial behavior. This study further found that the U-shaped effect of academic performance on antisocial behavior was mediated by the praise; In addition, this study also found that moral identity moderates the U-shaped relationship between academic performance, praise, and antisocial performance. The findings provide the implications for school administrators and teachers to pay attention to the "moral trap" of academic achievement and praise, and pay attention to excellent students' moral education, to reduce the possibility of their anti-social behavior.

MeSH terms

  • Academic Success*
  • Antisocial Personality Disorder*
  • Educational Status
  • Humans
  • Schools
  • Students

Grants and funding

This study is supported by the National Social Science Fund of China (Grant No. 21BTY077) to WS. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.