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Psychological-Educational Studies
2025. Vol. 17, no. 4, 40–55
doi:10.17759/psyedu.2025170403
ISSN: 2587-6139 (online)

Psychological portrait of a modern primary school student: the academic achievement factor

 
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Abstract

Context and relevance. Changing the social situation of children's development requires clarifying indicators of their personal development and, in particular, creating a psychological portrait of a modern primary school student. Objective – according to empirical research data, to present a psychological portrait of primary school-age children with different levels of academic achievement. Hypothesis. The severity of academic motivation, the level of self-esteem, and the degree of formation of the socio-emotional skill of interacting with others based on emotional intelligence vary among children with high and low academic achievement. Methods and materials. The study was conducted in 76 regions of Russia in 2025; 39055 students in 1–4 grades participated in it. All students were between the ages of 6 and 11 (average age = 8,8 ± 1,2 years; 19257 boys and 19798 girls). Academic motivation was determined using the “Subject position” methodology by Yu.V. Zaretsky, V.K. Zaretsky, I.Y. Kulagina, self-assessment was determined using the “Ladder” methodology by V.G. Shchur, the “Work with others” scale of the “Assessment of socio-emotional skills in primary school” methodology by E.A. Orel, A.A. Kulikova allowed to determine the formation of skills of interaction with adults and peers. Results. It is shown that a psychological portrait with positive characteristics (expressed academic motivation, high self-esteem, formed socio-emotional skills of interacting with others) is a portrait of children with high academic performance in elementary school (“excellent pupil” and “good pupil”). Students who are unsuccessful in their academic activities (“underachievers”) have reduced indicators of personal development. Conclusions. Вy providing psychological and pedagogical support to younger pupils with low academic performance, one should focus not only on its reasons and the need to fill knowledge gaps, but also on the need to increase self-confidence and develop emotional intelligence.

General Information

Keywords: primary school student, academic motivation, self-esteem, interaction with others, academic performance

Journal rubric: Developmental Psychology

Article type: scientific article

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/psyedu.2025170403

Funding. The study was carried out as part of the implementation of the state assignment of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation № 073-00069-25-03 dated 04/24/2025 “Creating a psychological portrait of modern children and adolescents and determining the conditions of their well-being”.

Acknowledgements. The authors are grateful for the help of psychologists and educators who participated in data collection when working with primary school children.

Received 01.11.2025

Revised 10.12.2025

Accepted

Published

For citation: Kulagina, I.Y., Apasova, E.V., Volchanskaya, V.O., Zaytseva, N.G. (2025). Psychological portrait of a modern primary school student: the academic achievement factor. Psychological-Educational Studies, 17(4), 40–55. (In Russ.). https://doi.org/10.17759/psyedu.2025170403

© Kulagina I.Y., Apasova E.V., Volchanskaya V.O., Zaytseva N.G., 2025

License: CC BY-NC 4.0

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Information About the Authors

Irina Y. Kulagina, Candidate of Science (Psychology), Professor, Department of Educational Psychology, Moscow State University of Psychology and Education, Moscow, Russian Federation, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3095-4329, e-mail: kulaginaiu@mgppu.ru

Ekaterina V. Apasova, Candidate of Science (Psychology), Associate Professor, Chair of General and Special Pedagogy, Department of Psychological, Pedagogical and Special Education, Moscow University of Psychology and Social Sciences, Moscow, Russian Federation, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3902-0768, e-mail: aev3aev@mail.ru

Victoria O. Volchanskaya, Candidate of Science (Psychology), Associate Professor, Chair of “Developmental Psychology named after Professor L.F. Obukhova”, Faculty of Psychology in Education, Moscow State University of psychology and education, Director, Two Wings Family and Children’s Assistance Centre, Moscow, Russian Federation, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1685-2713, e-mail: vmerkul@mail.ru

Nadezhda G. Zaytseva, Independent Researcher, Moscow, Russian Federation, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9710-9229, e-mail: farsi13@yandex.ru

Contribution of the authors

Irina Yu. Kulagina, Ekaterina V. Apasova — research ideas; theoretical and methodological justification and planning of the study; annotation, interpretation of results; writing and formatting the manuscript; visualization of research findings.

Victoria O. Volchanskaya, Nadezhda G. Zaytseva — data collection and analysis; application of statistical for data analysis.

All authors participated in the discussion of the results and approved the final text of the manuscript.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Ethics statement

The study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of Moscow State University of Psychology and Education.

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