Relationship between personality and academic performance among ethnic Khmer students in Vietnam: The mediating role of teacher confirmation

Abstract

Understanding factors associated with students’ achievement in higher education is critical for planning interventions and services to improve their performance. The aim of this work was to explore the relationship between personality traits and academic performance of Khmer students and examine the role of teacher confirmation of this association. The design was randomly sampled once by a cross-sectional study. A sample population of 426 Khmer students from the first to the third year of three universities in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam completed the Big-Five personality dimension test, the teacher confirmation scale, and reported their college grade point average (GPA). Results revealed that all five personality traits were positive significantly related to academic performance. The results of the current study are also in line with what other studies have confirmed that personality traits are important predictors of academic achievement. Further, Bootstrapping and Sobel's analyses indicated that teacher confirmation mediated the association between openness to experience, conscientiousness, agreeableness traits, and academic performance while the association of extraversion, emotional stability, and academic achievement was not mediated by teacher confirmation. The findings were interpreted within the classroom context in a multicultural environment in the Mekong delta of Vietnam where instructors could encourage and nurture the Khmer students’ achievements based on their personality traits and through the role of teacher confirmation in the classroom.