The subtle sound of learning: what are the roles of the self-esteem, decision-making, and social skills in adolescents’ academic performance?

Many researchers have analyzed the relationship among self-esteem, decision-making, and interpersonal behaviorin Italian adolescents. However, the purpose of those stud ies was to determine if adolescents with high or lowacademic performance present different levels of self-esteem, decision-making, and interpersonal behavior. Onehundred students, equally divided into two groups (high vs. low academic performance), were selected. They wereasked to fill out self-analyzing questionnaires in or der to estimate their perceptions of their self-esteem,decision-making styles, and social abilities. As expected, low academic performance was associated with lowerself-esteem and lower decision-making abilities, while stud ents with high academic performance showed higherself-esteem and more functional decision-making styles. Sample characteristics did not allow to generalize theresults; however, data analysis confirmed the necessity to organize education training for teachers that could beuseful to increase not only academic competences but also individual competences, which seem to be closely linkedtogether.