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Personality Factors as Predictors of Grade Point Average and Graduation from Nursing School

Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Northwestern University Medical School

Jack Arbit

Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Northwestern University Medical School

Walter Wengel

Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Northwestern University Medical School

For a sample of 570 female nursing students in a three-year, hospital-based, nursing diploma program, the predictive validity coefficients were determined for the ACT Assessment composite score, for ten subscales of the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule (EPPS), and for three scales (Lie, F, and Pd) of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) relative to a criterion measure of grade point average (GPA) through graduation or point of withdrawal. The validity coefficient of .35 for the ACT Assessment composite score was statistically significant (p < .01). One of the validity coefficients for any other predictive variables (which ranged from -.09 to .08) was significant. The multiple correlation coefficient of .377, associated with 14 predictor variables, was not significantly larger than the zero-order coefficient afforded by the ACT Assessment composite score alone. A stepwise discriminant analysis, relative to a dichotomous criterion variable of graduation versus elimination from the program, yielded essentially parallel results to those provided by the multiple regression analysis. On the basis of these findings, it appears that personality scales hold little promise as predictive variables of academic success in a three-year, diploma nursing program, relative to which criterion measures (such as GPA) confound academic and patient care activities. Further study is needed in nursing programs for which criteria involve only one of these two areas of performance.

Educational and Psychological Measurement, Vol. 42, No. 4, 1169-1175 (1982)
DOI: 10.1177/001316448204200424


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