Psychological correlates of university students' academic performance: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

By Michelle Richardson, C. Abraham, R. Bond. Psychological bulletin, 2012

3,417 citations recorded by the source corpus.

A review of 13 years of research into antecedents of university students' grade point average (GPA) scores generated the following: a comprehensive, conceptual map of known correlates of tertiary GPA; assessment of the magnitude of average, weighted correlations with GPA; and tests of multivariate models of GPA correlates within and across research domains. A systematic search of PsycINFO and Web of Knowledge databases between 1997 and 2010 identified 7,167 English-language articles yielding 241 data sets, which reported on 50 conceptually distinct correlates of GPA, including 3 demographic factors and 5 traditional measures of cognitive capacity or prior academic performance. In addition, 42 non-intellective constructs were identified from 5 conceptually overlapping but distinct research domains: (a) personality traits, (b) motivational factors, (c) self-regulatory learning strategies, (d) students' approaches to learning, and (e) psychosocial contextual influences. We retrieved 1,105 independent correlations and analyzed data using hypothesis-driven, random-effects meta-analyses. Significant average, weighted correlations were found for 41 of 50 measures. Univariate analyses revealed that demographic and psychosocial contextual factors generated, at best, small correlations with GPA. Medium-sized correlations were observed for high school GPA, SAT, ACT, and A level scores. Three non-intellective constructs also showed medium-sized correlations with GPA: academic self-efficacy, grade goal, and effort regulation. A large correlation was observed for performance self-efficacy, which was the strongest correlate (of 50 measures) followed by high school GPA, ACT, and grade goal. Implications for future research, student assessment, and intervention design are discussed.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e55fe5d54d157d40488ff48fef55176098f42530

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Citations in the corpus

Comparing online and blended learner's self-regulated learning strategies and academic performance (2017, methodology): “In a bivariate context, time management has also been previously found as the strongest predictor of performance for online learners (Broadbent & Poon, 2015), and the second strongest predictor in University learners following effort regulation (Richardson et al. 2012).”
Life Satisfaction as a Distinguishing Indicator of College Student Functioning: Further Validation of the Two-Continua Model of Mental Health (2014, background): “…its face-validity as an important college outcome, various studies have shown that GPA warrants consideration because of its interrelations with mental health, including psychological distress and well-being, and its relations with various domains of adaptive functioning (Richardson et al. 2012).”
Fostering self-efficacy and self-regulation in higher education: a matter of autonomy support or academic motivation? (2019, methodology): “We argue that, in addition to the commonly included student characteristics of age, gender, prior knowledge, personality, or learning patterns (e.g., Richardson et al., 2012; Vermunt & Donche, 2017), other student characteristics are important when it comes to understanding the mediating effects of…”
Juxtaposing math self-efficacy and self-concept as predictors of long-term achievement outcomes (2014, methodology): “Indeed, the meta-analysis by Richardson, Abraham, and Bond (2012) found that self-efficacy was the strongest psychological correlate of academic achievement among those studied (general self-esteem but not academic self-concept was included in this analysis).”
A scalable goal-setting intervention closes both the gender and ethnic minority achievement gap (2015, background): “Several studies conclude that female students tend to be more motivated when starting academic programmes, spend more time studying than male students and work harder (for example, Buchmann and DiPrete, 2008; Richardson et al., 2012).”
The study, evaluation, and improvement of university student self-efficacy (2016, methodology): “In a recent meta-analysis, Richardson, Abraham, and Bond (2012) found, in addition to high school and university-entrance exam achievement, that university student achievement (GPA) is most significantly related to self-efficacy, grade goal, and effort regulation.”
The Big Five and tertiary academic performance: A systematic review and meta-analysis. (2014, methodology): “, 2007) only one performed trim and fill procedures to handle publication bias (Richardson et al., 2012).”
The development of academic procrastination in first-year secondary education students: The link with metacognitive self-regulation, self-efficacy, and effort regulation (2018, background): “Students with high effort regulation will exhibit persistence when working on a task, whereas students with low effort regulation are more likely to quit before finishing their work (Pintrich, 2004; Richardson et al., 2012).”
Achievement goals, emotions, learning, and performance : A process model (2015, background): “…with studies showing weak or nonsignificant relations with performance (e.g., Bers, McGowan, & Rubin, 1996; Facione & Facione, 1997; Giancarlo & Facione, 2001; Komarraju & Nadler, 2013; Stupnisky, Renaud, Daniels, Haynes, & Perry, 2008; for meta-analytic findings, see Richardson et al., 2012).”
Academic self-efficacy, growth mindsets, and university students' integration in academic and social support networks (2018, background): “…integration into academic peer groups in contrast to the psychological significance of self-efficacy beliefs and growth mindsets that is well substantiated empirically for individual outcomes (e.g., Brouwer et al., 2016; Burnette et al., 2013; Komarraju & Nadler, 2013; Richardson et al., 2012).”
The consequences of media multitasking for youth: A review (2015, neutral): “Similarly, it could be that students with lower academic performance are less motivated at school (Richardson, Abraham, & Bond, 2012), which may lead to an increased use of media during school-related activities.”
Aptitude and Personality Traits in Retention of Engineering Students (2015, background): “Richardson et al. (2012) suggested that students higher in Extraversion may be more socially focused and thereby have more difficulty maintaining focus on academic tasks.”