The Role of Personality Traits in Predicting Senior High School Students’ Academic Buoyancy

All students have to face academic pressures, setbacks and challenges that are part of their everyday academic life. The capacity to deal with this, i.e. ‘academic buoyancy', is needed to reduce the impact of academic adversity. Since academic buoyancy may be associated with personality, our study explored the role of personality trait, especially the ‘big five', as predictors of the academic buoyancy in senior high school students in an Eastern culture. Methods: Using quota sampling, 356 respondents were sampled from the eight largest senior high schools in Bandung, Indonesia. Five personality factors were measured using the Big Five Inventory. Furthermore, academic buoyancy was assessed utilizing the Academic Buoyancy Scale. Multiple regression analysis was used to analyze the predictive value of each trait for academic buoyancy. Result: Academic buoyancy appears to be related to personality differences. We found three personality traits which predicted positively and significantly academic buoyancy, namely Conscientiousness, Agreeableness and Extraversion. Conclusions: The study has provided a new understanding of the relevance of personality for academic student's life. Implications and differences in relation between personality and academic buoyancy in senior high school' student are discussed.