Academic Performance and Personality: A Study of Enneagram Archetypes in Brazilian High Schools

Improving educational methods to improve student performance and engagement in the classroom is a primary focus of academic research. With the development of new psychological and behavioral assessment tools, analyzing personality characteristics in educational contexts has become a prevalent approach. Previous research has focused on a limited set of theoretical models within higher education settings, like college and graduate school, in Asia, Europe, and North America. This raises questions of whether results might differ when analyzed in a different educational context, such as high school, and when a different theoretical model is utilized. To address this question, the study explores the correlation between personality archetypes of the Enneagram Personality Test and academic performance among Brazilian high school students. The study utilized a quasi-experimental correlational design to quantitatively analyze differences in Grade Point Average (GPA) across the 9 personality archetypes. Although the data revealed differences in GPA across the different Enneagram personality archetypes, the results were statistically insignificant. Therefore, it was concluded that personality archetypes are not reliable predictors of academic achievement in the context of Brazilian high school students. The study also found weak correlations (r < 0.2) between GPA and each Enneagram personality archetype.