Emotion regulation and academic achievement

Abstract

This research investigated the connections between students' ability to manage the negative affect associated with academic tasks and students' overall academic achievement while more generally addressing a relatively unexplored area, emotion regulation and academic achievement. Four questions were examined: (1) is there a significant association between students' ability to regulate negative affects and their performance on academic tasks; (2) what are the connections among students' emotion regulation, self-competency, temperament, mood, and academic achievement; (3) will the connections between emotion regulation and academic performance still be significant after accounting for the influence of cognitive ability in that relationship; and (4) will the connection between emotion regulation and academic performance still be significant after accounting for the influences of self-competency, temperament, and mood?;Three self-report questionnaires, were administered to 103 sixth-grade, seventh-grade, and eighth-grade from two Jewish affiliated day schools. The first instrument focused on negative academic affect, the second on academic competency, and the third on temperamental tendencies. In addition, two teachers from each grade assessed students' positive and negative moods using a rating scale. Finally, scores from standardized achievement tests and students' grades were collected as measures of cognitive ability and academic achievement. Results indicated a number of significant correlations among the core variables. Overall, students who had greater difficulty managing negative academic affect, had a lower GPA, scored lower on the achievement tests, perceived themselves as less academically competent, had less perseverance on tasks, and had a more negative general mood. Interestingly, teachers' perceptions of students' mood had no connection with students' experience of negative academic affect. Multiple linear regressions then assessed the relationship of students' ability to manage negative academic to academic achievement after accounting for cognitive ability, general mood, academic competency, and aspects of temperament. As expected, students' ability to manage the anxiety and frustration associated with routine school tasks predicted students' GPA, above and beyond the contributions of all other cognitive and affective variables.