A influência da inteligência e da personalidade nas diferenças individuais do rendimento acadêmico em escolares do ensino fundamental

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between cognitive, emotional and socioeconomic factors and individual school differences. The sample is based on 151 teenagers (71 females and 80 males) of the 7th and 8th grades of the Teaching Center at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) in Belo Horizonte-MG that participate in the "Longitudinal Study for Evaluation of Psychological Skills Children's School " developed by the Laboratory for Assessment of Individual Differences of UFMG. Data collection occurred during the first half of 2008. To evaluate the personality characteristics were used the self-reported questionnaire Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Junior (EPQ-J) and the assessment of intelligence, the test of nonverbal intelligence of Raven Progressive Matrices - General Scale and the verbal scale of the Intelligence Scale of Wechsler for Children Third Edition (WISC-III). For academic performance was used the short version of the mathematical proof of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) composed of 16 objective questions. The socioeconomic characteristics were found from a questionnaire based on the Brazil Economic Classification Criterion (CCEB). Was also used the scale to Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), which provides information to investigate the cognitive skills and characteristics of personality. The results showed a high association between crystallized intelligence and performance in the PISA test. The social variables showed a positive association with academic performance, but such association disappeared when controlled for intelligence variable. Regarding personality characteristics, there was a negative and significant association with school performance and the personality trait of psychoticism. The same happened between the Extroversion trait and school performance. There was no significant correlation with the Neuroticism factor. All subscales of the ADHD scale showed significant and negative associations with school performance. From the regression analysis was found that the intelligence and personality explain 40% of the variance in academic performance, with 34.7% attributed to intelligence. The Extroversion and Psychoticism dimensions have had an impact on the prediction of school performance. In conclusion, such empirical evidence can represent a significant contribution to the educational context.