Abstract:

The future of any nation is dependent on the resourcefulness of her youth; this explains the importance of quality education and improved students’ performance. This study investigated the influence of students’ personality characteristics and gender on their academic performance. The participants of the study were 201 students from 100 level to 500 level representing the four Colleges. Ninety-eight of the participants were males and one hundred and three were females. The ex-post facto research design and the convenient sampling method were adopted in this study. Two hypotheses were stated and tested using multiple regression analysis and t-test independent samples respectively. The result revealed that Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism and Openness jointly accounted for 9.1% variance in Students’ academic performance〖(R〗^2 = .091, F (5,195) =3.895, p<.01). However, only conscientiousness made significant contribution to the changes in students’ academic performance (β=.264, p<.01). Also, the result of t-test independent samples showed a significant difference in male and female academic performance t (199) = -5.256, p<.01). Female (X=3.1262) students had higher academic performance compared to their male (X=2.6327) counterpart. It was concluded that the trait of conscientiousness had significant positive influence on students’ academic performance; and that female performed better academically than their male counterpart. Consequently, this study recommended that the conscientiousness trait be instilled in students with special attention to the male students.

Keywords:

Academic performance, personality characteristics, gender, students.