Can academic achievement be predicted? Behavior regulation as an indicator of academic achievement in higher education students

The main objective of the present study was to find a relationship between academic achievement and the behavioral regulation indexes evaluated by the BRIEF-A inventory of executive functions. A sample of 88 higher education students were evaluated. The academic achievement measures used were their high school average grades, their score in the test for admission to the University of Guadalajara, and their score in the College Board academic skills test. A negative correlation was found between academic achievement and the clinical scales of the BRIEF-A, the behavior regulation index (BRI), the metacognition index (MCI), and the global executive composition (GEC). Lower academic achievement was correlated with higher scores in different BRIEF-A scales and indexes, so these results suggest that the regulation of behavior and emotions in daily life reflect the attentional processes and inhibitory control that are necessary for and associated with successful academic life, and therefore, with better academic achievement. Thus, executive functions evaluated by the BRIEF-A questionnaire could be used as behavioral indicators or predictors of academic achievement in higher education students.