Personality traits and academic achievement in Egyptian health professions students: a multicenter cross-sectional study

Abstract Background The association between personality traits and academic achievement has received attention in educational psychology. The Big Five model of personality traits, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism, and openness to new experiences, has become the most popular framework for comprehending personality traits in educational settings. Our study aims to investigate the relationship between the Big Five personality traits and academic performance among Egyptian health professions students. Methods A multi-center, cross-sectional study was conducted among 1377 students from six medical and paramedical faculties across different geographical regions and universities in Egypt between August 2024 and October 2024. Personality traits were assessed by the Big Five personality traits, and the academic achievement of students was determined by their last GPA or percentage. Descriptive statistics, one-way analysis of variance, chi-square tests, and ordinal logistic regression were used to analyze the data. Results The highest mean personality trait score was observed for agreeableness (16.08 ± 3.03), followed by openness (14.10 ± 3.29), conscientiousness (13.75 ± 2.93), neuroticism (12.41 ± 3.12), and extraversion (11.72 ± 3.12). Conscientiousness ( p < 0.001, η 2 = 0.026), openness ( p = 0.026, η 2 = 0.007), and neuroticism ( p = 0.008, η 2 = 0.009) differed significantly across academic performance categories, although the observed effect sizes were small. In ordinal logistic regression, higher conscientiousness was independently associated with lower odds of poorer academic performance (adjusted OR = 0.89, 95% CI 0.85–0.92, p < 0.001). University-level maternal education was associated with better academic performance (adjusted OR = 0.64, 95% CI 0.43–0.95, p = 0.025), whereas off-campus residence was associated with higher odds of poorer academic performance (adjusted OR = 3.13, 95% CI 1.18–8.29, p = 0.021). Moderate levels of daily social media use were associated with lower odds of poorer academic performance compared with the highest usage category. Conclusion Conscientiousness appears to be the most consistent personality-related factor associated with academic performance among Egyptian health professions students. Openness and neuroticism were associated with academic grade categories in the initial analysis, but they did not remain independent predictors after adjustment for other variables. Our results highlight the need to consider both personality traits and socio-environmental factors when supporting students’ academic development in health professions education.