RIASEC interests and the Big Five personality traits matter for life success—But do they already matter for educational track choices?

Abstract

Objective Educational track choices have far‐reaching consequences because they are associated with long‐term life success. Theoretical approaches and previous empirical research have nearly exclusively identified family background and achievement as determinants of these choices. Although students’ educational track choices might fit their personality, individual differences in personality have not been explored. We investigated the effects of two personality aspects—RIASEC interests and Big Five traits—on hierarchically ranked track choices (vocational vs. general educational track), alongside family background and achievement. Method We used two German data sets (TOSCA 10 study: N = 473; TOSCA study: N = 4,218) focusing on choices between the general educational track (leading to higher educational attainment) and the vocational track (leading to work life) at two different stages in educational careers. We ran several multiple (logistic) regressions. Results The results showed that certain aspects of students’ personality matter for educational track choices. Accordingly, across both studies, students with high Investigative or Enterprising interests more often chose the general educational track, whereas students with high Social or Conventional interests more often chose the vocational track—after the Big Five personality traits, achievement, and family background were controlled for. The Big Five traits showed no or only small significant associations with educational track choices. Conclusion These findings underscore the importance of considering individual differences when investigating important life outcomes such as track choices.

Conceptualizing and Studying Characteristics, Units, and Fits of Persons and Environments: A Coherent Synthesis

“…However, measures of interests in global domains, such as social, cultural, and intellectual activities, are as stable and heritable as measures of traits (Kandler et al, 2011;Low et al, 2005). They do not only mediate (genetic) variance in measures of temperamental and cognitive traits or other traits' effects on activities and experiences in work and life environments, but also show a substantial proportion of unexplained (genetic) variance (Kandler et al, 2011;Stoll et al, 2017;Usslepp et al, 2020). Moreover, interests show equivalent bidirectional associations with other relatively stable characteristics over time (Hoff et al, 2020;Kandler & Piepenburg, 2020).…”

Comparing Students of Medical and Social Sciences in Terms of Self-Assessment of Perceived Stress, Quality of Life, and Personal Characteristics

“…For example, conscientiousness is positively related to the probability of studying medical sciences ( Humburg, 2017 ). On the contrary Usslepp et al (2020) assumed that The Big Five traits showed no or only small significant associations with educational track choices and indicated the need of understanding of the importance of various aspects of personality in affecting and structuring the lives of young adults. In our study, we discovered that there were some dependencies between personality factors and type of university fields, but it seems necessary to carry out further studies for more certain conclusions.…”

The prospective power of personality factors for family formation and dissolution processes among males. Evidence from Swedish register data

“…I make use of high-quality Swedish register data that capture all registered persons in Sweden. Personality factors shape early life experiences, such as education (Damian et al, 2015;Leikas & Salmela-Aro, 2015;Meyer et al, 2019;Usslepp et al, 2020) and partnership formation (Leone & B. Hawkins, 2019;Neyer & Asendorpf, 2001;Senia et al, 2016), which are, in turn, associated with family formation by mid-adulthood (Baizán et al, 2003;Balbo et al, 2013;Sobotka et al, 2017). Therefore, it is crucial to examine the association between personality at young ages and family formation by mid-adulthood.…”