The Effect of Non-Intellective Competencies and Academic Performance on School Satisfaction

Background: To improve academic performance and prevent dropouts, many studies
have investigated the eects of non-intellective competencies on performance, and the eects of
performance on school satisfaction. The aim of this study was to investigate the direct role of both
non-intellective competencies and performance on school satisfaction at the same time. (2) Methods:
The study involved 731 Italian students, attending three dierent high schools, who responded to the
H-Comp Scale, a questionnaire assessing twelve dierent aspects of students’ skills, attitudes and
motivations over the study, and the H-Sat Scale, a questionnaire assessing five dierent areas of school
satisfaction. (3) Results: We found a strong role of non-intellective competencies on school satisfaction
and a marginal role of academic performance, gender and the attended class, which reduced as
students’ seniority increased. (4) Conclusions: This study showed that school satisfaction depends on
students’ self-perception in terms of their study competencies and the motivations possessed more
than their sole performance, suggesting that this helps students to improve their non-intellective
competencies in order to increase their performance and reduce the risk of dropouts, both directly
and indirectly, through increasing their school satisfaction.