A Meta-Analysis of the Combined Effects of Motivation, Learning and Personality Traits on Academic Performance

Domains of motivation, learning and personality traits (MLP) have emerged as vital constructs in studies of academic performance. Although there are abundant studies on the relationships of the three aforementioned dimensions on performance, no systematic synthesis of the empirical literature has been done regarding how three determinants jointly influence academic performance. Random-effects meta-regression analysis with a restricted maximum likelihood estimator is applied to 54 papers with 344 estimates. Summarization of effect sizes reveal a mean effect size for the study of r=0.22. The forest plot suggests a significant amount of study heterogeneity. No evidence of significant publication bias is uncovered. The achieved results show the significance of MLP as associated variables and also on an individual basis and they can positively impact student’s academic performance. Other mediator variables, including income level, year, main methodology used, cohort gender, sample size, publication type and citations are found to be important variables in understating academic performance. Future work is needed to develop an integrated approach to examine educational objectives and explore the correlates of combined MLP and academic performance.