IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ibn/jedpjl/v4y2014i2p1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Testing if Healthy Perfectionism Enhances Academic Achievement in Australian Secondary School Students

Author

Listed:
  • Elizabeth Thorpe
  • Ted Netteelbeck

Abstract

Although considerable evidence has confirmed that measures of intelligence and conscientiousness substantially predict academic achievement, other personality variables have attracted only limited research. The purpose of this study was to test the extent to which intelligence and personality variables, including perfectionism, accounted for academic grades. Participants were 180 (65 males) secondary school students in years 11-12. They completed tests for fluid and crystallised abilities (Gf, Gc), Conscientiousness (C), Openness to Experience (O), Neuroticism (N), Need for Cognition (NFC) and the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, which was used to define healthy perfectionism (HP) and unhealthy perfectionism (UHP). Gender differences for all measures were negligible and not considered further. One aspect of HP (personal standards) overlapped moderately with NFC but HP and NFC appeared to be different constructs. Hierarchical regression found that Gf, Gc and C together accounted for 27% of variance in academic grade, with HP explaining an additional 6%. Further contribution from NFC was not statistically significant. N correlated with UHP but did not impact grade. Higher concern about parental criticisms correlated (r = -.27) with lower academic grade.

Suggested Citation

  • Elizabeth Thorpe & Ted Netteelbeck, 2014. "Testing if Healthy Perfectionism Enhances Academic Achievement in Australian Secondary School Students," Journal of Educational and Developmental Psychology, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 4(2), pages 1-1, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:ibn:jedpjl:v:4:y:2014:i:2:p:1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jedp/article/download/35782/21115
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jedp/article/view/35782
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ibn:jedpjl:v:4:y:2014:i:2:p:1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Canadian Center of Science and Education (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cepflch.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.