Positive psychology constructs and academic success in South African secondary schools : a scoping review

Abstract

The increasing popularity and a widening scope of interest within the field of positive psychology have led to a plethora of multidisciplinary studies in the education domain. Education, in particular, academic success, has been linked to various benefits for individuals and communities. Secondary school learners in South Africa face many challenges in pursuit of academic success. A positive psychology approach to understanding and promoting academic success may be an effective and suitable response to educational challenges on multiple levels. Most research on academic success in secondary school seems to have been conducted in Western individualistic contexts, which may not apply to a non-Western collectivist society, such as South Africa. There is a need to investigate positive psychology constructs relevant in a South African context to facilitate current understanding, culture-activity fit, and future research. Then the current study implemented a scoping review to establish what is known about positive psychology constructs identified in association with academic success, specifically in South African secondary schools. Electronic databases, reference lists, key journals, institutional repositories, and relevant organisations were consulted to identify published and unpublished literature relevant to the topic. A quality search strategy was used to comprehensively cover the topic. A list of 46 possible positive constructs was identified from dominant positive psychology literature. Each data source was searched multiple times using a new search string for each positive construct of interest. Studies were included in the final results if they were conducted within the last 15 years with South African secondary school learners or parents or staff members working directly with secondary school learners. The studies had to report on positive constructs associated with academic success. Fifteen studies were identified using the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The results showed that only 25 out of 46 potential positive constructs had been investigated in South African secondary schools. The construct most often identified in association with academic success was social support. Achievement motivation, hope, love of learning, self-regulation, creativity, self-efficacy, altruism, autonomy, bravery, grit, honesty, meaning and purpose, and resilience were all identified by more than one study. The remaining positive constructs were only identified by one study each. These were merely the current positive constructs found in South African literature. However, they are not exhaustive or indicative of constructs most strongly related to academic success. The results highlighted a gap in the literature about positive psychology constructs identified in association with academic success in South African secondary schools. Robust and replicable studies are needed to advance knowledge on the positive psychology constructs associated with academic success in South African secondary schools.