Abstract
Duckworth and Seligman’s seminal work found that self-discipline (self-control) was more salient for academic achievement than intelligence. Very little replication work exists, including in different cultures; the current study addressed these gaps. Data were collected from 6th and 7th grade cohorts of early adolescents (N = 589; age: Mean = 12.34 years, and SD = 0.89; 58% female) over two years. The study tested whether self-control was a stronger predictor than intelligence in explaining academic performance two years later as well as in explaining developmental changes over the course of two years. Path analyses provided evidence that both self-control and intelligence longitudinally predicted teacher-reported academic competence as well as school-reported grades; however, intelligence was a significantly stronger predictor than self-control. In addition, only intelligence predicted developmental changes in each measure of academic performance over time, self-control did not.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to sincerely thank the school administrators, students, and teachers for their participation.
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A.V. conceived of the study, designed it, participated in its measurement and statistical analyses, and drafted the manuscript; M.J. carried out the statistical analyses and interpretation, and drafted the manuscript; M.B. participated in the design and measurement of the study, and coordinated data collection. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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The study was funded by the John I. and Patricia J. Buster Endowment of Family Sciences, awarded to the first author; some additional support was provided by the Institute of Psychology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. No funding was received to assist with the preparation of this manuscript.
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The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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The study was performed in accordance with the ethical standards as laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments.
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The study was approved by the University of Kentucky Institutional Review Board and the Institutional Board of the Institute of Psychology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.
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Written informed consent was obtained from the parents of study participants; participants also provided assent to participate in the study.
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Vazsonyi, A.T., Javakhishvili, M. & Blatny, M. Does Self-control Outdo IQ in Predicting Academic Performance?. J Youth Adolescence 51, 499–508 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-021-01539-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-021-01539-4