Temperament and academic achievement in children: A meta-analysis

Abstract

This study aimed to systematize the diverse and rather controversial findings of empirical research on the relationship between the temperament and academic achievement of school children, as well as to determine the average effect size between these variables. We included 57 original studies of published and unpublished research conducted in 12 countries between 1985 and 2019, with cumulative sample size of 79,913 (varying from 6333 to 14,126 for links between particular temperament dimensions and specific domains of achievement). A random-effects and mixed-effects model was fitted to the data for the central tendency of the temperament–achievement relation and for analyzing moderators, respectively. The high heterogeneity of studies was tackled by selected specific moderators, namely, education level, transition status, family’s socio-economic level, and sources of report on achievement and temperament. The main findings of this meta-analysis affirmed the positive association of effortful control (EC) and inverse relationship of negative affectivity (NA) with a child’s academic performance, together with no apparent trend of surgency (SU) in this relationship; additionally, the sources of report significantly moderated the link between temperament and academic achievement.