The relationship between personality and attainment in 16-19-year-old students in a sixth form college: II: Self-perception, gender and attainment.
BACKGROUND
A related paper (Summerfield & Youngman, 1999) has described the development of a scale, the Student Self-Perception Scale (SSPS) designed to explore the relationship between academic self-concept, attainment and personality in sixth form college students.


OBJECTIVE
The study aimed to identify groups of students exhibiting varying patterns of relationship using a range of measures including the SSPS. Issues of gender and also examined.


METHODS
The samples comprised a pilot sample of 152 students (aged 16-17 years from two sixth form colleges) and a main sample of 364 students (mean age, 16 yrs 10 mths range 16:0 to 18:6 years, from one sixth form college). The main sample included similar numbers of male and female students (46% male, 54% female) and ethnic minority students comprised 14% of this sample.


METHODS
Data comprised responses to two personality measures (the SSPS, Summerfield, 1995, and the Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale, Nowicki & Strickland, 1973), various student and tutor estimates of success, and performance data from college records. Students were classified using relocation cluster analysis and cluster differences verified using discriminant function analysis. Thirty outcome models were tested using covariance regression analysis.


RESULTS
Eight distinct and interpretable groups, consistent with other research, were identified but the hypothesis of a positive, linear relationship between mastery and academic attainment was not sustained without qualification. Previous attainment was the major determinant of final performance. Gender variations were detected on the personality measures, particularly Confidence of outcomes, Prediction discrepancy, Passivity, Mastery, Dependency and Locus of control, and these were implicated in the cluster characteristics.


CONCLUSIONS
The results suggest that a non-linear methodology may be required to isolate relationships between self-concept, personality and attainment, especially where gender effects may exist.
Summerfield
M
M
School of Education, University of Nottingham, UK.
Youngman
M
M
D000124:Achievement; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010553:Personality Development; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012649:Self Concept; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*