Gender Differences in Academic Performance: The Role of Personality Traits

Abstract:     Introdaction: The aims of this research were to examine the role of gender differences on personality traits, to explore the indirect effect of gender on academic performance by personality traits and to study the direct effect of personality traits on academic performance.   Methods: A sample of ۴۱۹ students (۱۶۶ male and ۲۵۳ female) completed the Big Five Inventory (BFI). In order to examine the role of gender differences on personality traits and in order to study the indirect effect of gender on academic performance by personality traits and the direct effect of personality traits on academic performance from Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) and path analysis was used, respectively.   Results: The MANOVA yielded a significant main effect of gender on personality traits. Using the path analysis, results showed that the indirect and total effects of exogenous variable (gender) on academic performance only by conscientiousness and neuroticism factors were significant. The direct effect of personality traits (extraversion, conscientiousness, openness to experience, neuroticism, and agreeableness) on academic performance was significant.   Conclusion: The findings of this research emphasize the mediating role of conscientiousness and neuroticism factors in the relationship between gender and academic performance. Also, these findings show that personality traits have independent and incremental effects on academic outcomes, even after controlling for traditional predictors of those outcomes such as IQ. Implications of these findings emphasizing the correlates of personality traits for improving academic performance are discussed.

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Key words : Personality Traits , gender differences , academic achievement , Five Factor Model