The Relationship Between Personality Features and Academic Performance in Medical Students

Abstract

Background: Investment in improving the quality of education can pave the way for sustained development. There are several studies, which have shown that personality features are important factors in predicting academic performance such as intelligence and cognitive ability. Mental disorders are one of the most severe complications of personality disorders, which influence academic performance, as well as students’ quality of life. Therefore, early diagnosis and treatment of personality disorders can help prevent students’ academic failure. Objectives: This study can provide a better understanding of the prevalence of personality features and disorders among students. This may be of great value for providing mental health care for the students who demonstrate certain traits. Furthermore, this may be helpful for education policymakers to provide guidelines and update their student health monitoring process for the universities. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2015 at Tehran University of Medical Sciences, School of Medicine. We have used convenience sampling. A total of 107 questionnaires were administered to the students, and overall 96 valid questionnaires were collected from the participants. The association between personality features and academic performance in medical students was evaluated through Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2), which assesses personality features and psychopathology. Thus, the 370-item MMPI-2, as well as the academic performance questionnaire (including national university entrance exam rank, grade point average (GPA) of the first five terms, National Basic Science Exam Grade), was given to the students. Results: The results were statistically analyzed using Spearman’s correlation and Independent sample t-test. Among the Clinical scales, the highest scores belonged to the following scales: Hypomania (%24), depression (%23), hysteria (%20.8), masculinity-femininity (%17.8), hypochondriasis (%17.7), and social introversion (%13.5), respectively. Concerning the relationship between each of these scale scores and academic performance, the scores of clinical scales of hypomania, hysteria, masculinity-femininity, hypochondriasis, and paranoia, had a significant relationship (all of the P values were < 0.05) with academic performance. Moreover, the scores of validity scales of Infrequency and Lie had significant negative correlations (P values < 0.05) with academic performance. Conclusions: The scores of Hypomania, Hysteria, Masculinity-Femininity, Hypochondriasis, and Paranoia scales correlated with students’ academic performance.