Research Article

The Effects of Negative Emotions and Negative Personality Traits on Academic Achievement

Number: 66 December 29, 2025
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The Effects of Negative Emotions and Negative Personality Traits on Academic Achievement

Abstract

Research in the literature on academic achievement has predominantly focused on students’ cognitive competencies. However, to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of school performance, affective characteristics—particularly negative affective traits—must also be taken into account. Negative emotions and negative personality traits have been the primary focus of numerous meta-analyses, thereby generating a research pool that enables the conduct of second-order meta-analyses. Building on this approach, the present study aims to synthesize the findings concerning the relationships among students’ negative emotions, negative personality traits, and academic achievement in an integrative manner. A total of eight meta-analyses were included in the analyses conducted based on the R-AMSTAR checklist, yielding 23 effect sizes. The findings revealed that the relationship between students’ negative emotions and academic achievement was negative and moderate in magnitude, whereas the relationship between negative personality traits and academic achievement was negative but very small. Furthermore, moderator analyses indicated no statistically significant differences across academic domain, cultural context, publication bias, research quality, report type, grade level, or publication year.

Keywords

negative personality traits , negative emotion , academic achievement , second-order meta-analysis

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APA
Erdem, C., Kaya, M., & Polat, M. (2025). The Effects of Negative Emotions and Negative Personality Traits on Academic Achievement. Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi Buca Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi, 66, 3698-3718. https://doi.org/10.53444/deubefd.1551806