Differential effects of personality traits and resilience on academic engagement among Ghanaian college of education students using quantile regression approach

Despite growing evidence on non-cognitive predictors of engagement, their distributional effects across engagement levels remain underexplored in resource-constrained African educational settings. Grounded in Self-Determination Theory, this study examined how personality traits and resilience differentially predict academic engagement among 288 students at Jasikan College of Education in Ghana. Using a predictive correlational design and quantile regression analysis, the study moved beyond ordinary least squares estimates to uncover heterogeneous effects across the engagement distribution. Results showed that agreeableness most strongly predicted engagement among low-engaged students, while openness was negatively associated with engagement at lower quantiles. Resilience exerted its strongest positive effects among highly engaged rather than low-engaged students, indicating that it functions as a performance-sustaining resource rather than a protective buffer. These findings demonstrate that academic engagement interventions should be differentiated by students’ engagement levels and psychological profiles rather than applied uniformly.