Study of Academic Achievement and its Predictive Psychological Factors

Abstract

There is no doubt that the educational process consists of more than one or two factors. Several scholars maintain that it is important to put the emphasis on the role of psychological factors on academic performance. This study was an attempt to represent a pattern of correlations, through Structural Equation Modeling, among optimism, locus of control and academic achievement as well as the mediating effect of school satisfaction. Five-hundred and ten students, out a total population of the senior high-school (pre-university) male students, were selected randomly through cluster sampling. Data was collected through a set of questionnaires including: (1) Life Orientation Test-Revised Scale (Scheier &Carver, 1992), (2) School satisfaction sub-scale adopted from Satisfaction with Life Scale (Huebener, 1994), and (3) Internal-External Locus of Control Scale (Rotter, 1966). Data was submitted to a diagrammed structural equation model with its prerequisite exploratory factor analysis. The outcomes indicated that: (a) there is a bidirectional relationship between optimism and locus of control, (b) school satisfaction mediates the relationship between optimism and academic achievement, (c) the direct effect of school satisfaction on students’ academic achievement and the indirect effect of optimism on academic achievement through the mediating effect of school satisfaction was significant, and (4) there is no significant effect of locus of control on academic achievement while the mediating effect of school satisfaction is taken into account. The goodness of fit index indicated that the proposed diagrammed model is appropriate.