The mechanisms of interest and perseverance in predicting achievement among academically resilient and non-resilient students: Evidence from Swedish longitudinal data

Abstract

Background: Students with low socio-economic status (SES) are typically depicted as low performers and more likely to fail in school. However, a group of students, despite their background, manage to succeed in school. The capacity to overcome adversities and achieve successful educational outcomes is referred to as Academic Resilience. Research on the relationship between personality traits and academic performance shows that conscientiousness is a crucial factor in predicting academic success and resilience. However, it has also been shown that achievement is a result of an interaction between conscientiousness and students’ interest in the subject. Aims: The study aims to investigate how students’ school-related perseverance and interest predict academic achievement among resilient and non-resilient pupils over time in the Swedish compulsory school setting. Sample: Study subjects were a subset (N = 1,665) of the sampled compulsory school students from the 1992 birth cohort in the evaluation through follow-up (ETF) database. Methods: Multigroup structural equation modelling (SEM) with latent variable interaction was used. Measurement invariance was tested to examine the comparability of the constructs across groups. Results: The results suggest that resilient students rely heavily on both perseverance of effort and interest in school subjects to succeed in their education. For the non-resilient group, the later perseverance level was conditioned on the level of the interest, and neither their early nor later grade interest was related to their achievement. Conclusions: The academically resilient students displayed more consistency in interest and perseverance over time, which might explain their relative success compared to the non-resilient group.