Abstract
Background: This study examined the relationship of academic performance with the Big Five traits of personality, academic motivation, and gender in a cross-cultural context. Methods: Participants in the study were 424 university students of physical education (PE) departments from Poland (53%) and Ukraine (47%). Undergraduates completed a brief version of the International Personality Item Pool (Mini-IPIP) to assess the Five-Factor model of personality, the Academic Motivations Scale (AMS), and grade point average (GPA). Results: Polish PE students scored higher in emotional stability and extroversion and had a higher GPA than Ukrainian PE undergraduates. Gender differences were found in both personality traits and academic motivation scales. Intrinsic motivation may predict academic performance. Conscientiousness and intellect emerged as mediators of the relationship between intrinsic motivation and academic performance and gender was found as a moderator in the relationship between conscientiousness and academic success. Conclusions: Women are more motivated regarding academic achievements than men. In addition to intrinsic motivation, the most important factors for academic grades are some personality traits, gender, and cultural differences. Openness and conscientiousness in men are mediators between intrinsic motivation and academic performance. The results of this study may be useful for PE academic teachers to improve the motivation of their students.
Highlights
There is significant evidence that regular physical activity (PA) has beneficial effects on the physical, mental, and social aspects of well-being and contributes to the academic achievement of children and adolescents, e.g., [1,2,3,4]
Women demonstrated higher academic performance (GPA), agreeableness, and conscientiousness and scored lower in emotional stability when compared to men
The academic motivation of young adult women in this study was stronger than in men. This was evidenced by higher scores of women in intrinsic and extrinsic motivation scales, in addition to a lower outcome in amotivation compared to men
Summary
There is significant evidence that regular physical activity (PA) has beneficial effects on the physical, mental, and social aspects of well-being and contributes to the academic achievement of children and adolescents, e.g., [1,2,3,4]. A systematic review and meta-analysis of the relationships between the Big Five personality traits and tertiary academic performance indicate that agreeableness and openness were positively correlated with GPA, in addition to conscientiousness [36]. Mcabe et al [43] showed that conscientiousness was strongly and positively related with mastery-approach goals, characterized by frequently used task-referenced and self-referenced competence standards This type of achievement motivation is more like intrinsic motivation. Better academic performance demonstrated highly conscientious students or those high in self-motivation This compensatory function of conscientiousness was confirmed in other studies since conscientiousness was a stronger predictor of GPA at lower levels of autonomous motivation [47]. Zhou [48] showed that conscientiousness and agreeableness positively predicted academic performance when self-determined motivation was low in primary school students in China. More research is needed to explain mechanisms of gender differences and disparities in particular previous research
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