Self-esteem, locus of control, and academic performance; cases of selected colleges in Greater Ada and Accra, Ghana

The study of important concepts like academic accomplishment, locus of control, and self-esteem has long been a focus of intensive research in the discipline of educational psychology. The study looked into the connections between students’ academic achievement, locus of control, and self-esteem at selected colleges in Greater Ada and Accra in Ghana, West Africa. Based on reviews of the literature on theories related to the variables of interest as well as employing a correlational research design, questionnaires were administered to 400 randomly sampled students from the Ada and Accra Colleges of Education. The examination of responses demonstrated a weak adverse correlation between academic performance and self-esteem as well as a weak to moderately strong negative correlation between locus of control and academic performance. The results indicate that there are significant associations between student self-esteem, student locus of control, and student academic routine. The study’s findings, which advise that students with greater levels of self-esteem may perform worse academically than those with lower levels, show a fairly weak negative association between student self-esteem and academic routine. The outcome highlights the need for policymakers to adopt treatments that focus on these features to enhance academic achievement and encourage students’ healthy psychological development. Further use of this knowledge can be applied by educators and counselors to create initiatives and plans for raising kids’ self-worth and internal locus of control. © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.