Conscientiousness shows the strongest links to SRL and robustly predicts academic performance even after accounting for cognitive ability¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · theoretical r3 · q2
Currency · newest study 2026 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Conscientiousness is a robust and consistent predictor of academic performance and achievement, even after accounting for cognitive ability, and encompasses planning, goal setting, persistence, and self-control fundamental to self-regulation. → Mathias Allemand 2026

Evidence¶

Mathias Allemand 2026¶

Mathias Allemand, Brent W. Roberts, Ulrich Trautwein. (2026). Integrating Insights from Volitional Personality Change Interventions to Improve Self-Regulated Learning. Educational Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-026-10127-6

q2 · i? · theoretical · r3

The review attributes this to prior meta-analytic work (Mammadov, 2022; Poropat, 2009), reporting that conscientiousness "reflects a propensity toward self-control, goal orientation, planning, and adherence to rules" and exhibits the strongest conceptual and empirical links to SRL among the Big Five.

"Conscientiousness is also a robust and consistent predictor of academic performance and achievement, even after accounting for cognitive ability (Mammadov, 2022; Poropat, 2009), underscoring its value as a key target for educational intervention efforts."

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Personality Traits — predictor: learners who differ on it differ in outcomes

Related Claims¶

• A reduced set of non-cognitive factors alone explains 17–25% of the variance in university GPA across three years of a degree — related
• Of the Big Five personality traits, only conscientiousness (r = .22) and openness (r = .13) correlate appreciably with mathematics achievement — related
• Mathematics achievement correlates more strongly with learners' knowledge, skills and cognitive abilities than with their personality traits, goals or emotions — related
• Stable Dispositions such as conscientiousness predict academic success partly through effort, with some independence from cognitive ability — possibly the same claim (merge candidate)
• Conscientiousness is robustly associated with academic performance across primary, secondary, and tertiary education, with openness the next strongest predictor — a broader claim this one bears on
• University students overwhelmingly report goals to change at least one Big Five trait, but agreeableness may be the hardest trait to shift — related
• The CONIC model proposes conscientiousness and interest can partly compensate for one another in explaining academic effort and achievement — related
• Conscientiousness is a reliable meta-analytic predictor of academic achievement — related