The Relevance Of The Big Five Model To Students’ Adaptation To The Academic Environment Personality and Academic Experiences

Abstract

The Big Five has been used as a theoretical framework for the evaluation of the 21stcentury skills and is associated with desirable out- comes. This study evaluates the extent to which the Big Five relates to students’ adaptation to the academic environment. Participants were 845 undergraduate students (60.7% female), aged from 17 to 31 years who answered the Factorial Personality Battery and the Academic Experience Questionnaire. Data reduction analysis at the facet level recovered the Big Five structure and indicated that Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Conscientiousness are, respectively, associated with higher personal, interpersonal, and study related academic adaptation dimensions. Agreeableness and Openness did not cluster with academic dimensions, suggesting lower relevance for academic adaptation in higher education.