Demographic and psychological predictors of grade point average (GPA) in North-Norway: a particular analysis of cognitive/school-related and literacy problems

Abstract

Approximately 30 % of students drop out from Norwegian upper secondary schools. Academic achievement, as indexed by Grade Point Average (GPA) is one of the strongest predictors of dropout.The present study aimed to examine the role of cognitive, school-related and affective/psychological predictors of GPA. In addition, we examined the psychometric properties of a new scale for literacy problems (LP), as well as its role for GPA. Analyses showed that the scale had favourable psychometric properties. Multivariable regression analyses showed that study track choice, task solving skills, gender, lack of educational plans and literacy problems predicted GPA in descending order. The major implication of the study was that GPA is related to a multiple number of demographic, cognitive, and psychosocial factors, and that any interventions addressing GPA will be less effective if not addressing psychosocial in addition to cognitively/school-related factors.

Problem mobile gaming: The role of mobile gaming habits, context, and platform

“…We also lacked a validation measure of GPA; desirability bias might lead participants to report more favourable grades. However, reported GPA in our sample ( M = 4.54, SD = 0.72) was comparable to that collected through school registries in a large study of Norwegian upper secondary school students ( M = 4.10, SD = 0.79) ( Sæle et al, 2016 ). Finally, the measure of problem gaming may not ideally capture the criteria and guidelines reported in the ICD-11 ( King et al, 2020 ).…”

Poorer self-reported mental health and general health among first year upper secondary school students do not predict school dropout: a five-year prospective study

“…Reading and writing problems, or literacy problems, were measured by a short scale addressing current and previous difficulties with decoding, reading comprehension, spelling, and written expression. The psychometric properties of the scale, as reported in a previous paper ( Sæle et al, 2016 ), are satisfactory. Sample items are “ Do you have reading difficulties?” and “ Do you make many writing mistakes?” Cronbach’s α = 0.84.…”

“…In line with the national statistics for dropout ( Statistics Norway, 2023 ) males had a higher risk of dropping out than females initially in the regression analyse; however, this difference disappears when we adjust for grades. This could relate to the fact that males often achieve poorer academically than females ( Markussen et al, 2011 ; Sæle et al, 2016 ).…”

“…The last subscale represents traits that are considered desirable only for one sex (e.g., submissive (F) and aggressive (M)). In our sample, this subscale had a Cronbach’s alpha as low as 0.46 and was not included in the analyses (see also Sæle et al, 2016 ). The masculinity and femininity subscales had a presentable Cronbach’s α = 0.73 and 0.82, respectively compared with the originally scale (0.85 and 0.82 respectively) ( Spence and Helmreich, 1978 ; Sæle et al, 2016 ).…”

“…A higher percentage of males are in the vocational track ( Statistics Norway, 2023 ). This combined with higher risk of learning problems (see above) and lower academic achievement ( Markussen et al, 2011 ; Sæle et al, 2016 ) may be one explanation of the higher dropout-rate in males. Derdikman-Eiron et al (2011) showed that even though females had higher depression and anxiety scores, this did not influence academic performance as it did for males.…”