CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A new study links doing one’s homework, being interested and behaving responsibly in high school to better academic and career success as many as 50 years later. This effect, reported in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, holds true even after accounting for parental income, IQ and other factors known to influence achievement, researchers report.
“Yes, intelligence is important to life success and so is family socioeconomic status; we’ve known this for a while,” said University of Illinois psychology professor Brent Roberts, who conducted the study with Rodica Damian of the University of Houston and Marion Spengler of the University of Tuebingen. “Studies have shown that personality traits such as conscientiousness, agreeableness and openness also correspond to higher academic and career achievement. But these are traits you’re more or less born with. We wanted to know if factors under the control of the individual at a young age might also play a role.”
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Image courtesy of illinois.edu
