Domain-specific school achievement in boys and girls as predicted by intelligence, personality and motivation

This study investigates whether sex differences in school achievement in three domains are associated with sex differences in intelligence, personality and school-related motivation. In a sample of 1353 Austrian eight graders (552 males, 801 females; mean age 13.74 years, SD = .47), intelligence, the Big Five personality factors as well as domain-specific school anxiety, ability self-perceptions and interests were assessed as predictors of grades in German, Math and English. Most predictors yielded significant mean differences between sexes. Intelligence and ability self-perceptions were the strongest predictors of grades in all domains. In Math, additional predictors of grades were Conscientiousness and Neuroticism. Grades in German and English were also predicted by the interaction between sex and Extraversion. While for girls a higher level of Extraversion was associated with better grades, the opposite was true for boys. Only in German, there was an additional interaction between sex and verbal intelligence indicating that girls benefit even more than boys from a high level of verbal intelligence.