Abstract
The last few decades have seen the importance of education increasing in the subcontinent. A steep rise in the emphasis on girls’ education is also observed in India. The current education scenario in the country requires students to get very high scores at higher secondary level for admission into reputable colleges and universities. This study intends to understand the predictors of academic performance by gathering opinions from female students. The relative weights of the predictors, namely self-discipline, student interest, study habits, teacher expertise, and family support, were computed based on the responses and presented. This study employed a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) technique for the same. As the study involved vagueness, the fuzzy version was used. Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) is the MCDM technique utilized here. Student–participants were from cities, all belonging to the same stream and board of education. The study finds student interest to be a key predictor, followed by self-discipline, teacher expertise, study habits, and family support, respectively. The results imply that studying with interest can influence academic performance to a great extent. This study will be helpful to researchers, academicians, schools, and parents. It is suggested that investigations could be carried out with boys and students in other places and boards of education to throw more light on predictors.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
The datasets are available from the corresponding author on request.
References
Abbott, CJ, Hughes, P, Wyld, C (1992) Monitoring Student Progress. A framework for improving student performance and reducing attrition in higher education. National Clearing House for Youth Studies, Hobart.
Altbach PG (2014) India’s higher education challenges. Asia Pacific Educ Rev 15(4):503–510
Bahar M (2013) Academic achievement of Turkish selective schools in national exams of HSEE and UEE with respect to test types and gender. Asia-Pac Educ Res 22(2):163–171
Baumann C, Hamin H, Tung RL, Hoadley S (2016) Competitiveness and workforce performance: Asia vis-a-vis the West. Int J Contemp Hosp Manag 28:2197–2217
Baumann C, Harvey M (2018) Competitiveness vis-à-vis motivation and personality as drivers of academic performance. Int J Educ Manag 32(1):185–202
Baumann C, Harvey M (2021) What is unique about high performing students? Exploring personality, motivation and competitiveness. Assess Eval High Educ 14:1–13
Baumann C, Krskova H (2016) School discipline, school uniforms and academic performance. Int J Educ Manag 30(6):1003–1029
Baumann C, Winzar H (2017) Confucianism and work ethic-introducing the ReVaMB model. In: Oh I, Park GS (eds) The political economy of business ethics in East Asia. Chandos Publishing, Sawsto, pp 33–60
Baumann C, Winzar H, Fang T (2018) East Asian wisdom and relativity: inter-ocular testing of Schwartz values from WVS with extension of the ReVaMB model. Cross Cult Strateg Manag 25(2):210–230
Baumann C, Winzar H, Viengkham D (2020) Confucianism, discipline, and competitiveness. Routledge, New York
Blau G, Ryan J (1997) On measuring work ethic: A neglected work commitment facet. J Vocat Behav 51(3):435–448
Buckley JJ (1985) Fuzzy hierarchical analysis. Fuzzy Sets Syst 17(3):233–247
Butt BZ, Rehman K (2010) A study examining the students satisfaction in higher education. Procedia-Soc Behav Sci 2(2):5446–5450
Chamorro-Premuzic T, Furnham A (2008) Personality, intelligence and approaches to learning as predictors of academic performance. Pers Indiv Differ 44(7):1596–1603
Chen PH (2013) The effects of college students’ in-class and after-class lecture note-taking on academic performance. Asia-Pac Educ Res 22(2):173–180
Dawes PL, Brown J (2002) Determinants of awareness, consideration, and choice set size in university choice. J Mark High Educ 12(1):49–75
Deb S, Strodl E, Sun J (2014) Academic-related stress among private secondary school students in India. Asian Educ Dev Stud 3(2):118–134
DeBerard MS, Spielmans GI, Julka DL (2004) Predictors of academic achievement and retention among college freshmen: a longitudinal study. Coll Stud J 38(1):66–81
DeShields OW, Kara A, Kaynak E (2005) Determinants of business student satisfaction and retention in higher education: applying Herzberg’s two-factor theory. Int J Educ Manag 19(2):128–139
Duckworth AL, Seligman ME (2005) Self-discipline outdoes IQ in predicting academic performance of adolescents. Psychol Sci 16(12):939–944
El Massah SS, Fadly D (2017) Predictors of academic performance for finance students. Int J Educ Manag 31(7):854–864
Feng Y, Iriarte F, Valencia J (2019) Relationship between learning styles, learning strategies and academic performance of Chinese students who learn Spanish as a foreign language. Asia-Pac Educ Res 28:1–10
Forehand R, Long N, Brody GH, Fauber R (1986) Home predictors of young adolescents’ school behavior and academic performance. Child Dev 1:1528–1533
Gafoor KA, Ashraf PM (2012) Contextual influences on sources of academic self-efficacy: a validation with secondary school students of Kerala. Asia Pacific Educ Rev 13(4):607–616
Gerdes H, Mallinckrodt B (1994) Emotional, social, and academic adjustment of college students: a longitudinal study of retention. J Couns Dev 72(3):281–288
Gibb BE, Zhu L, Alloy LB, Abramson LY (2002) Attributional styles and academic achievement in university students: a longitudinal investigation. Cognitive Ther Res 26(3):309–315
Griffith J (1996) Relation of parental involvement, empowerment, and school traits to student academic performance. J Educ Res 90(1):33–41
Harman G (1994) Student selection and admission to higher education: Policies and practices in the Asian region. High Educ 27(3):313–339
Hasan W (2004) Girls’ education in India: present status and future challenges. Commonw Youth Dev 2(2):24–44
Heck RH, Mahoe R (2010) Student course taking and teacher quality: their effects on achievement and growth. Int J Educ Manag 24(1):56–72
Himelstein HC (1992) Early identification of high-risk students: using noncognitive indicators. J Coll Stud Dev 33(1):89–90
Jayawardena NS (2021) The role of culture in student discipline of secondary schools in cross-cultural context: a systematic literature review and future research agenda. Int J Educ Manag. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEM-06-2020-0325
Kakkar G (2020) Opportunities and challenges for girl child schooling and education in India. IJCRI 5(7):50–79
Kirkup, C, Wheater, R, Morrison, J, Durbin, B (2010) Use of an aptitude test in university entrance : a validity study: updated analyses of higher education destinations, including 2007 entrants. National Foundation for Educational Research
Krskova H, Baumann C (2017) School discipline, investment, competitiveness and mediating educational performance. Int J Educ Manag 31(3):293–319
Lecompte D, Kaufman L, Rousseeuw P, Tassin A (1983) Search for the relationship between academic performance and some psychosocial factors. Acta Psychiat Belg 83:598–608
Lent RW, Brown SD, Larkin KC (1987) Comparison of three theoretically derived variables in predicting career and academic behavior: Self-efficacy, interest congruence, and consequence thinking. J Couns Psychol 34(3):293–298
Mai LW (2005) A comparative study between UK and US: The student satisfaction in higher education and its influential factors. J Mark Manage 21(7–8):859–878
Maiyo J, Siahi EA (2015) Study of the relationship between study habits and academic achievement of students: A case of Spicer Higher Secondary School, India. Int J Educ Admin Pol Stud 7(7):134–141
Masud H, Ahmad MS, Jan FA, Jamil A (2016) Relationship between parenting styles and academic performance of adolescents: mediating role of self-efficacy. Asia Pacific Educ Rev 17(1):121–131
McKenzie K, Schweitzer R (2001) Who succeeds at university? Factors predicting academic performance in first year Australian university students. High Educ Res Dev 20(1):21–33
McNair R, Johnson HD (2009) Perceived school and home characteristics as predictors of school importance and academic performance in a diverse adolescent sample. N Am J Psychol 11(1):63–84
Mitrofan N, Ion A (2013) Predictors of academic performance. The relation between the big five factors and academic performance. Procedia-Soc Behav Sci 78:125–129
Nambudiri R, Shaik R, Ghulyani S (2019) Student personality and academic achievement: mediating role of psychological capital (PsyCap). Int J Educ Manag 34(4):767–781
Ofori R (2000) Age and ‘type’of domain specific entry qualifications as predictors of student nurses’ performance in biological, social and behavioural sciences in nursing assessments. Nurse Educ Today 20(4):298–310
Peterson C, Barrett LC (1987) Explanatory style and academic performance among university freshman. J Pers Soc Psychol 53(3):603–607
Rammohan A, Vu P (2018) Gender inequality in education and kinship norms in India. Fem Econ 24(1):142–167
Rashmi MR, Shweta BM, Fathima FN, Agrawal T, Shah M, Sequeira R (2015) Prevalence of malnutrition and relationship with scholastic performance among primary and secondary school children in two select private schools in Bangalore rural district (India). Indian J Community Med 40(2):97
Rau W, Durand A (2000) The academic ethic and college grades: does hard work help students to “make the grade”? Sociol Educ 73(1):19–38
Saaty TL (1980) The analytic hierarchy process. McGraw Hill, New York
Salamonson Y, Andrew S (2006) Academic performance in nursing students: Influence of part-time employment, age and ethnicity. J Adv Nurs 55(3):342–349
Schiefele U, Krapp A, Winteler A (1992) Interest as a predictor of academic achievement: a meta-analysis of research. Role Interest Learn Dev 58:183–212
Shanbhag D, Goud BR (2013) Emotional intelligence and scholastic performance among children of a high school in south India. Int J Collab Res Intern Med Public Health 5(5):359–367
Shin JC, Harman G (2009) New challenges for higher education: global and Asia-Pacific perspectives. Asia Pac Educ Rev 10(1):1–13
Siddhu G (2011) Who makes it to secondary school? determinants of transition to secondary schools in rural India. Int J Educ Dev 31:394–401
Singh R, Mukherjee P (2018) ‘Whatever she may study, she can’t escape from washing dishes’: gender inequity in secondary education–evidence from a longitudinal study in India. Compare 48(2):262–280
Tan C, Tan LS (2014) The role of optimism, self-esteem, academic self-efficacy and gender in high-ability students. Asia-Pac Educ Res 23(3):621–633
Thiele T, Singleton A, Pope D, Stanistreet D (2016) Predicting students’ academic performance based on school and socio-demographic characteristics. Stud High Educ 41(8):1424–1446
Thien LM (2016) Malaysian students’ performance in mathematics literacy in PISA from gender and socioeconomic status perspectives. Asia-Pac Educ Res 25(4):657–666
UNDP. (2015) Human Development Report 2015: Work for Human Development. UNDP: Human Development Report Office
Varughese AR, Bairagya I (2020) Group-based educational inequalities in India: have major education policy interventions been effective? India. Int J Educ Dev 73:102159
Verma S, Sharma D, Larson RW (2002) School stress in India: effects on time and daily emotions. Int J Behav Dev 26(6):500–508
Zadeh LA (1965) Fuzzy sets. Inf Control 8(3):338–353
Acknowledgements
The corresponding author wishes to thank the Centre for Research, Anna University for awarding Anna Centenary Research Fellowship.
Funding
The authors did not receive funds, grants, or other support for the study.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflicts of interest
The authors have none to disclose.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Raja, A.M., Raju, R., Sriramadesikan, B. et al. Predictors of academic performance among girls in south Indian cities. SN Soc Sci 1, 250 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-021-00248-w
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-021-00248-w