The Big Five Personality Traits and School Achievements of Children: The Role of Gender

The goal of the current study was to explore the relations between the Big Five personality traits and school achievements of children in the fourth grade of primary school. Participants were (n = 157) children (aged 9–11 years) attending public primary school in Poland. Children completed a self-description inventory for the Big Five and teachers evaluated current school achievements of children for mathematics and Polish language. The obtained results indicated that neuroticism and openness to experiences were significantly associated with school achievements. Moreover, the relationship between the Big Five and school achievements was moderated by gender in that a) agreeableness as well as the Big Five sub-scales of inferiority and helping behaviour were negatively associated with school achievements only among girls, and b) the openness to experience sub-scale of problem solver was positively associated with school achievements only among boys. The results suggest that the relationship between the Big Five personality traits and school achievements may depend on gender.