Differential effects of personality traits and resilience on Ghanaian students' academic engagement: A quantile regression approach

This study grounded in the Self-Determination Theory (SDT), explores how personality traits and resilience differentially affect academic engagement. Using a cross-sectional survey data from 288 Ghanaian higher education students from the Jasikan College of Education students. The study employed quantile regression (QR) for the data analysis beyond the ordinary least square (OLS) to uncover the nuanced differential effects. The OLS results showed that agreeableness and resilience have a uniform positive significant association with students’ academic engagement, whereas openness was negatively associated. The QR analysis reveals heterogeneity in these relationships, emphasising that while openness negatively affects academic engagement among disengaged students (q25–q30), agreeableness provides the greatest benefits to learners with low academic engagement (q15). Surprisingly, resilience’s strongest positive impact occurs at higher academic engagement levels (q70–q80). This study contributes in two key ways. Firstly, the QR results are more effective than those of OLS at detecting distributional effects, thereby advancing methodological approaches in educational psychology research. Secondly, the findings have practical implications, highlighting the need for interventions tailored to students' levels of academic engagement, as psychological resources vary accordingly.