The relationship between human values and academic performance: a systematic review

Abstract

Values are beliefs that represent final states of existence or preferred behaviors, transcend specific situations, guide the selection and evaluation of behaviors and events, and vary in degree of importance between individuals. As such, they reflect the goals people desire and what they consider important and valuable. Academic performance can be defined as the degree of knowledge and skills developed by students at each stage of their education. This paper presents a systematic review of studies that analyze the relationship between human values and academic performance from basic through to higher education. A search of the PsycINFO, Web of Science, Scielo and Google Scholar databases identified 1545 articles. Removal of duplicates and application of eligibility criteria reduced this number to 220, of which 19 were included in the review. The main theories found in the articles were Functionalist Theory of Human Values, Theory of Basic Values, and Rokeach’s Theory of Values. Human values were found to relate to academic performance, acting both as a predecessor variable and as a mediator and moderator of other variables, such as content of achievement objectives, effort towards goals, social and individual achievement motives, learning goals, academic dishonesty, achievement goals, learning approaches, and resilience. These results advance our understanding of how values are associated with academic performance and enable reflections on how to promote values among students.