Effects of Grit on the Academic Success of Adult Female Students at Korean Open University

Abstract

This study examined the structural relationship between age, grit (i.e., perseverance of effort and consistency of interest), conscientiousness, self-control, and school success of female students at an Open University in Korea. We analyzed 509 students’ responses, and it turned out that the level of perseverance of effort was negatively correlated with academic maladjustment. Also, perseverance of effort had a positive indirect effect on grade point average scores. Conscientiousness and self-control were found to be positively correlated with grit factors and they had negative effects on academic maladjustment through perseverance of effort. Age had both direct and indirect effects on grit and academic success of the students.

Keywords

Academic success adult college students conscientiousness grit self-control

Introduction

Distance learning has a long history and today, thanks to technological advances, various educational delivery systems around the world including open universities, online learning, and Massive Open Online Course are providing distance learning courses. As of 2016, there are 299,641 students enrolled in distance learning universities in South Korea. This number accounts for 15% of all students enrolled in four-year universities. While the number of students enrolled in traditional universities is decreasing, the number of students in distance learning universities is constantly increasing (The Korean Ministry of Education, 2016). However, compared to the amount of attention given to the difficulties traditional college students face, not many are interested in the hardships of distance learning college students.

Students within the distance learning system, especially female students, have different hardships compared to traditional college students in completing their academic tasks because they have lack of structure for learning, more life issues to deal with, or lack of social supports. These difficulties often lead to academic maladjustment and as a result, many students leave school. For example, the dropout rate of the biggest Open University in Korea is as high as 34.9% (Academyinfo, 2016). Unlike students enrolled in traditional universities, students enrolled in distance learning institutions find it difficult to focus solely on schoolwork because of other responsibilities pertaining to work, family, and social activities. These students often decide to drop out of the institution when it becomes extremely difficult to juggle schoolwork and work or schoolwork and family commitments (Kasworm, 2008). This is why it is important for distance learning universities to support their students in various areas including the cognitive domain that has to do with intelligence and memory, affective domain that has to do with learners’ emotion and motivation, and administration that has to do with school policies (Simpson, 2004).

Previous research findings consistently show that learners’ personal factors have greater impact on academic adjustments of distance learning students. Means, Toyama, Murphy, Bakia, and Jones (2009) asserted that “more research efforts to examine the effectiveness of online learning for different types of students and subject matter as well as studies of the relative effectiveness of different online learning practices should be carried out” (p. 54). Kauffman (2015) reviewed a broad range of factors that affect adult learners’ performance and satisfaction in online learning and concluded that in terms of performance, learners’ emotional intelligence plays a surprisingly critical role in the success of online courses (Barberà, Gómez-Rey, & Fernández-Navarro, 2016, p. 26). Researchers have found various personal factors related to academic adjustment and achievement and the factors were categorized into two factors: cognitive factors and noncognitive factors. In 2013, the U.S. Department of Education published a commissioned study in this area, adding tenacity and perseverance into the category, noting that these are noncognitive factors critical for the success of 21st-century learners (Shechtman, DeGarger, Dornsfie, Rosier, & Yarnall, 2013).

Duckworth and Eskreis-Winkler (2015) mentioned that the importance of noncognitive factors had been emphasized for a long time since Galton’s study, and Galton (1982) proposed “intellect, zeal, and capability for hard labor” as the characteristics of eminent people. Adult female learners who mainly enroll in open universities are especially in need of more noncognitive resources such as personality, effort, and motivation (Duckworth, Kirby, Tsukayama, Berstein, & Ericsson, 2011; Latham & Pinder, 2005). Among noncognitive factors, hardworking and not giving up in the face of an obstacle or failure seem to be most important for adult learners’ academic success. Duckworth suggested grit as this kind of individual trait. Defined as the tendency to sustain perseverance and passion for long-term goals (Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews, & Kelly, 2007), grit has been noted as one of the important factors that affect social success in many fields including education.

Grit has gained huge attention around the world and lots of research has been done already since Duckworth proposed it as a new concept. Still, subsequent research findings raised some issues that demanded clarification. The first issue had to do with the construct of grit. Credé, Tynan, and Harms (2016) argued that according to the meta-analysis, two sub-factors of grit (consistency of interest and perseverance of effort) may have different effects on academic achievement, thereby making it necessary to examine the effect of grit on academic success in the terms of consistency of interest and perseverance of effort. Secondly, questions have been raised on whether grit is a distinguished trait from other personal traits such as self-control or conscientiousness, which are known as predictors of social success. And the third issue, which is the most important issue of all, is that research findings are mixed about whether grit really has a positive effect on academic success. While many empirical studies have confirmed the positive effects of grit on academic success (e.g., Duckworth et al., 2007; Eskreis-Winkler, Shulman, Beal, & Duckworth, 2014; Mendolia & Walker, 2014; Slick & Lee, 2014; Strayhorn, 2014), others failed to do so (e.g., Bazelais, Lemay, & Doleck, 2016; Datu, Valdez, & King, 2016a; Davidson, 2014; Ivcevic & Brackett, 2014). Finally, recent studies on grit were mostly conducted on school-age learners or traditional college students. Students enrolled in distance learning institutes differ in ages, educational attainment, and motivation from those students, and these differences suggest further investigation.

Based on the issues described above, this study aims to identify the effects of grit on academic success of adult female college students. To be more specific, the purpose of this study is to examine the relative predictive validity of grit factors (consistency of interest, perseverance of effort) and personality (conscientiousness, self-control) in relation to academic adjustment and grade point average (GPA) scores. We also intend to examine both direct and indirect effects of age on grit and academic adjustment at school. The research questions of this study are as follows:

What is the relationship between age, personality (e.g., self-control, conscientiousness), grit, and academic maladjustment?

How does grit mediate personality and academic maladjustment?

What is the effect of age on grit and academic success for adult female students?

The construct of grit

The concept of grit was introduced to academia in 2007 through the scale validation study conducted by Duckworth and her colleagues. They defined the concept of grit as the following: “We define grit as perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Grit entails working strenuously toward challenges, maintaining effort and interest over years despite failure, adversity, and plateaus in progress” (Duckworth et al., 2007, pp. 1087–1088). Grit is a personality trait and Duckworth and Eskrels-Winkler (2015) described grit as “a relatively stable, domain-general inclination to maintain consistent, focused interest and effort for personally important and challenging goals” (p. 398). Duckworth et al. (2007) assumed that “the grit of older adults be slightly higher than that of younger people” (p. 1090), believing that grit can change over time just like other personality traits. Moreover, by using their cross-sectional sample, they confirmed that the level of grit does increase as people age.

The scale of grit consists of two subscales (Duckworth et al., 2007). Consistency of interests is about pursuing the same goal or interest for years and perseverance of effort is about sustained hard working even in the face of failure or setback. Duckworth et al. introduced the two-factor model of grit and argued that the total score of grit scale be used because they found the total score of grit to have the most powerful predictability compared to any scores collected from a single subscale of grit.

Subsequent research findings show mixed results and some researchers raised questions about the two sub-factors of grit. With huge attention on grit, a meta-analysis about grit and academic outcomes was conducted last year (Credé et al., 2016). Credé et al. (2016) argued that according to the meta-analysis, two sub-factors of grit (consistency of interest and perseverance of effort) may have different effects on academic achievement. And Datu, Valdez, and King (2016b) were the first to attempt the validation of the grit scale with non-Western collective cultural populations to assert the importance of cross-cultural investigation on psychological constructs. They concluded that grit was better conceptualized as two distinct factors with Filipino student samples and raised new concerns that for collective cultural population, the two-factor construct of grit might not be valid. They also argued that the consistency of interests may not be a crucial predictor of various life outcomes. Therefore, these debates are making it necessary to examine the effect of grit on academic success in the terms of two factors of grit, consistency of interest and perseverance of effort.

Personality and grit

Previous research suggests that grit was correlated with personality factors such as conscientiousness of the Big Five personality traits and self-control (Duckworth et al., 2007). First, conscientiousness has been found to be a crucial factor in personal success including academic achievement (MacCann, Lipnevich, Poropat, Wiemers, & Roberts, 2015; Richardson & Abraham, 2009; Trautwein, Lüdtke, Roberts, Schnyder, & Niggli, 2009; Wagerman & Funder, 2007). Rimfeld, Kovas, Dale, and Plomin’s study (2016) used the Grit-S scale (perseverance of effort and consistency of interest) along with the Big Five personality traits to predict students’ results on the General Certificate of Secondary Education exam, which is administered throughout the UK at the end of compulsory education. Dumfart and Neubauer’s study (2016) on average secondary students identified conscientiousness as the strongest predictor of academic achievement other than intelligence. The construct of conscientiousness was first identified as a personality factor by Norman (1963) and it was defined as “a fussy, responsible, scrupulous, and persevering trait” (Moon, 2001, p. 534). Today, researchers suggest that conscientiousness has two major facets of responsibility (being other-centered, disciplined, rule-following, detail-oriented, and trustworthy) and a strive for achievement (self-centered orientation, striving for excellence, adopting higher standard, and setting challenges) (Barrick & Mount, 1991; Hough, 1992; Moon, 2001; Wang, Wu, & Mobley, 2013). These researchers also cited many empirical studies to suggest that the relationship between conscientiousness and achievement has to do with the achievement-striving facet of conscientiousness.

Grit, however, differs from conscientiousness because the former is about having long-term focus rather than a short-term one, and it is distinct from the responsibility facet of conscientiousness (Duckworth et al., 2007). Christensen and Knezek (2014) proposed that there may be two types of grit. The first type of grit is related to persistence and perseverance in accomplishing a goal while the other type of grit is related to being consistently interested in one thing over a long period of time—a breadth versus depth of interest. Like Duckworth et al. (2007) explained, “the gritty individuals not only finish tasks at hand but pursue a given aim over years” (p. 1089). Moreover, they distinctly conceptualized grit as a trait that allows people to work longer without changing goals as opposed to conscientiousness which only emphasizes the importance of working hard (p. 1098).

Second, self-control refers to the ability to refrain from having impulsive desires and engaging in impulsive behaviors and the ability to delay gratification and satisfaction in order to achieve a goal (Vohs & Baumeister, 2004). Magen and Gross (2007) defined self-control as the ability to resist temptations that emerge instantly in various circumstances and the ability to effectively deal with those temptations. A growing body of research has found that students with greater capacity for self-control are better at adapting to new environments and display better academic performance (Duckworth & Seligman, 2006; Tangney, Baumeister, & Boone, 2004).

Grit and self-control are two different things but they are similar in that they help students persevere to reach a goal. However, while self-control is the ability to spontaneously resist instant temptations or behavioral and emotional sources of interest that give immediate gratification, grit is the tendency to demonstrate persistent interest and effort toward long-term goals (Duckworth et al., 2007; Tangney et al., 2004). Self-control and grit are related but different in some aspects: Self-control entails aligning actions with any valued goal in spite of more alluring alternatives that emerge from time to time; grit, in contrast, entails having and working assiduously toward a single challenging superordinate goal through thick and thin, for years or even decades (Duckworth & Gross, 2014). Yet, there is still controversy over what aspects of self-control and grit can predict academic results in common and what they cannot. Ha, Lim, and Hwang (2015) divided students into groups according to their level of grit and self-control and looked at what differences each group displays in terms of school maladjustment and academic performance. In addition, they examined how personality affects each person’s level of grit and self-control. Eventually, the students were divided into three latent classes, the first class with the highest capacity for grit and self-control and the last class with the lowest. It turned out that each group had a similar gap between the level of grit and self-control. In other words, from the first class to the third, students with higher levels of grit were more likely to be good at controlling themselves. This means that while grit and self-control consist of different attributes, the level of grit and self-control tend to be similar in each of the individuals. Likewise, although by definition grit and self-control have some differences (Duckworth & Gross, 2014), the results of latent class analysis show that students often have similar levels of the two.

Taken together, questions have been raised on whether grit is a distinguished trait from other personal traits such as self-control or conscientiousness, which are known as predictors of social success. Duckworth et al. (2007) suggested that grit is distinct from self-control and conscientiousness in that it has a long-term focus as opposed to a short-term focus. A recent study shows students often have similar levels of grit and self-control at the same time. The relationship between personality variables and grit needs to be examined by further investigation.

Grit and academic success

The concept of grit has been expanded as it has a disposition or trait associated with perseverance of effort and tenacity (Shechtman et al., 2013). Many researchers agreed that grit is a significant predictor of future success because it helps people to pursue their goal in spite of barriers (Duckworth et al., 2007; Duckworth & Quinn, 2009; Duckworth et al., 2011). For example, grittier cadets were less likely to drop out even after a difficult summer training in a highly competitive military academy. Duckworth et al. (2007) also reported that adults with higher levels of grit were more likely to attain a higher level of education and made fewer changes in their career paths. Additionally, Eskreis-Winkler et al. (2014) posit that grit is positively associated with people’s commitment to major life decisions such as the decision to stay in high school, military, and employment, as well as the decision to continue marriage. There was also a strong correlation between academic achievement and grit among UK students who receive compulsory education (Rimfeld et al., 2016). Moreover, a study conducted on Turkish college students demonstrated a strong correlation between metacognition and grit (Arslan, Akin, & Citemael, 2013). According to the study’s correlation analysis, the two dimensions of grit (consistency and perseverance) positively predicted the level of metacognition.

On the other hand, some empirical studies have failed to confirm the positive effects of grit on academic success (e.g., Bazelais et al., 2016; Datu et al., 2016a; Davidson, 2014; Ivcevic & Brackett, 2014). These conflict findings make it inappropriate to conclude that grit has always a positive effect on academic success when there is a lack of empirical evidence. This is especially true for studies conducting with nontraditional students enrolled in distance learning institutes.

Grit, personality, self-control, and academic success

Even though conscientious and tenacious people are more likely to attain higher levels of achievement, this does not necessarily mean that all these people display excellence at school (Ericsson & Ward, 2007). Rather, it seems that personality traits may partially mediate intrinsic and/or extrinsic motivation and academic success (Komarraju, Karau, & Schmeck, 2009). Among the predictors related to academic achievement, it has been noted that IQ, personality, and motivation (e.g., self-efficacy, attribution, and goal orientation) play major roles in explaining success at school (Kellogg & Whiteford, 2009).

West et al. (2014) collected the data of 1368 eighth graders in Boston public schools and reported that conscientiousness, self-control, grit, and growth mindset were positively associated with attendance, behavior, and test-score gains. In this study, the authors investigated the role of self-control which is defined as “the voluntary regulation of attentional, emotional, and behavioral impulses when immediate temptations conflict with more enduringly valued goals” (Duckworth, Gendler, & Gross, 2014, p. 200). Although grit and self-control seem to be positively correlated with one another, grit has more to do with commitment to relatively higher order goals on a timescale of years or even decades (Duckworth & Gross, 2014). These findings suggest that grit would be predicted by personality (i.e., conscientiousness) and self-control, which in turn, would affect school success such as academic adjustment and higher GPA scores among female college students. Still, these studies on grit were mostly conducted on school-age learners and only few studies have so far focused on adult female students. Students enrolled in distance learning institutes are of different ages and educational attainment, and their reasons for enrolling in the institution are greatly different from those enrolled in traditional universities. Also, students at distance learning institutes often study and work at the same time (Kasworm, 2008). Since most adult female students carry the burden of housework and childcare, they are likely to face difficulties juggling study and family commitments. As a result, such students may find it difficult to adjust to school life, earn credits, or graduate that they eventually drop out of the institute (Thomas, 2000). So, the positive effect of grit on academic success in adult female students might be different and further research on it needs to undertaken.

Methods

Participants

The study was conducted on a total of 509 female students enrolled in an Open University in South Korea. These students have studied at the school for one or more semesters and they have all agreed to fill out the survey. The students live in various regions of the country and take lectures through the Internet. The mean age of the subjects was 37.45 (SD = 4.23) and sophomores accounted for 38.7%, juniors 31.2%, and seniors 27.9%.

Measures

Grit was assessed by the translated and validated version of the Grit Scale developed by Duckworth et al. (2007). The scale consists of six items of perseverance of effort (e.g., “I have achieved a goal that took years of work”) and six items of consistency of interests (e.g., “I have difficulty maintaining my focus on projects that take more than a few months to complete”). Items of consistency of interests were reverse coded and reliability coefficients (Cronbach’s α) were .70 for perseverance and .68 for consistency. The whole scale’s α turned out to be .75.

Self-control scale was developed based on the work of Gottfredson and Hirsch (1990) and Grasmick, Tittle, Bursik, and Arneklev (1993). This scale includes seven items pertaining to finishing given tasks (e.g., “I take responsibility for what I have to do”) and seven items related to controlling impulsivity (e.g., “I usually act without thinking or planning”). Items of controlling impulsivity were reverse coded and both items’ reliability coefficients (Cronbach’s α) were .68. The whole scale’s α turned out to be. 80.

Conscientiousness was measured by using The International Personality Item Pool Big Five (Goldberg, 1992), which consists of 10 items (e.g., “I follow a schedule”). The reliability coefficient (Cronbach’s α) was .75.

Academic maladjustment scale was developed by Lee, Hwang, and Kwon (2008) and it measures the degree to which students perceive their academic issues in terms of class, assignment, and exam (e.g., “I have difficulties in finishing class assignments”). The reliability coefficient (Cronbach’s α) was .86. All of the abovementioned measures offered Likert-type response options which range from 1 (not like me at all) to 5 (very much like me).

Finally, to measure students’ academic achievement, current GPA of each subject was collected and the score ranged from 0.8 to 4.1 (M = 2.68, SD = 0.74).

Analysis

After conducting preliminary analyses for descriptive statistics and correlations among variables of interest, we employed a confirmatory factor analysis to examine a five-factor measurement model. Then, we analyzed our hypothesized model using structural equation modeling. The items regarding the variables of interest were divided into parcels according to the sequence of factor loadings within the same factor. Each parcel was used as a measured variable to reflect the latent variable. We decided to parcel the items because measurement errors could be overestimated and the fit may be poor if there are too many items to measure one factor in a structural equation model analysis. Item parceling is a method to reduce the number of measurement items by using the sum or mean of the item group composed of several items. This method is used when there are too many measurement items or when the sample is not big enough.

Results

First, we conducted confirmatory factor analysis to explore the factor structure, using maximum likelihood estimation procedures. We used the Tucker–Lewis index (TLI), the comparative fit index (CFI), the root-mean-square error of approximation (RMSEA), and the chi-square statistics for evaluating model fit. We included all observed and latent variables in this step of the analyses to ensure adequate specification of the measurement model before testing structural relationships among the latent variables. The fit indices of the five-factor measurement model turned out to be good, χ²= 119.76 (df = 44, p < .001), TLI = .949, CFI = .966, RMSEA = .058 (90% CI = .046, .071), and all the loadings were higher than .30. Table 1 shows the factor loadings and correlations among latent variables of interest.

Table 1.

Standardized and unstandardized factor loadings for measurement model.

Factor	B	beta	SE	R ²
MAL-ACD
←ACD1	1.000	.754	.026	.568
←ACD2	1.030	.721	.028	.519
←ACD3	1.216	.845	.024	.714
GRP
←GRP1	1.000	.630	.034	.397
←GRP2	1.393	.829	.031	.687
GPC
←GRC1	1.000	.773	.040	.597
←GRC2	.891	.705	.040	.496
CTR
←CTR1	1.000	.707	.027	.500
←CTR2	1.196	.890	.021	.792
CON
←CON1	1.000	.728	.029	.530
←CON2	1.028	.726	.029	.528
←CON3	.893	.621	.034	.385
Factor correlations among latent variables
GRP
↔ MAL-ACD	−.069	−.361	.053
GRC
↔ MAL-ACD	.072	.319	.054
↔GRP	−.095	.516	.052
CTR
↔ MAL-ACD	−.089	−.505	.043
↔GRP	.114	.785	.037
↔GRC	−.101	−.593	.047
CON
↔ MAL-ACD	−.070	−.350	.052
↔GRP	.117	.720	.041
↔GRC	−.061	−.319	.058
↔CTR	.115	.765	.034

Note. All factor loadings are statistically significant at p < .001. MAL-ACD: academic maladjustment; GRP: grit-perseverance of effort; GRC: grit-consistency of interests; CTR: self-control; CON: conscientiousness.

We then tested the research model, and the fit indices of results displayed a good fit; χ²= 173.85 (df = 65, p < .001), TLI = .935, CFI = .954, RMSEA = .057 (90% CI = .047, .068). Table 2 and Figure 1 show the standardized path coefficients. Students with less academic issues were more likely to earn higher GPAs (β = −.45). Perseverance negatively predicted academic maladjustment, while consistency was statistically insignificant (γ = −.34, p < .001 and γ = .13, p = .076, respectively). Students who had higher levels of conscientiousness and self-control were generally more likely to have higher grit scores (γs = .25 to .64); however, the path from self-control to consistency was negative (γ = −.85). Judging from the strong and positive correlation between latent variables of self-control and conscientiousness (Φ = .77) in Table 1, we see this unexpected sign as a statistical artifact resulting from the suppression effect. Finally, the magnitude of standardized coefficients predicting grit from self-control (γ = .64 for perseverance, γ = −.85 for consistency) was higher than that from conscientiousness (γ = .25 for perseverance, γ = .34 for consistency).

Table 2.

Path coefficients for structural equation model.

		B	SE	Beta
Academic maladjustment	←Perseverance	−.419***	.094	−.343
Academic maladjustment	←Consistency	.137	.078	.131
Perseverance	←Conscientiousness	.237*	.094	.246
	←Self-control	.691***	.118	.638
Consistency	←Conscientiousness	.386*	.142	.341
	←Self-control	−1.083***	.163	−.852
Academic maladjustment	←Age	−.015**	.005	−.129
Perseverance	←Age	.004	.004	.045
Consistency	←Age	−.007	.005	−.065
Conscientiousness	←Age	.016**	.005	.160
Self-control	←Age	.013**	.004	.154
GPA	←Academic maladjustment	−.675***	.077	−.453
Conscientiousness	↔Self-control	.112***	.012	.760
Perseverance	↔Consistency	−.011	.009	−.153

Note. GPA: grade point average.

p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001.

Figure 1.

Standardized path coefficients of the research model. Dotted lines indicate that the path is not statistically significant; MAL-ACD: academic maladjustment; GRP: grit (perseverance of effort); GRC: grit (consistency of interests); CTR: self-control; CON: conscientiousness; GPA: grade point average. *p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

We finally utilized bias-corrected bootstrapping procedures (Hayes, 2013) to examine the indirect effects of age, personality, and grit on academic success. In the current analysis, we used bootstrap samples to generate 95% confidence intervals around the parameter estimate and determined an effect to be statistically significant if the confidence interval did not include zero. Table 3 displays statistically significant total, direct, and indirect effects of each of the study variables. Both direct and indirect effects of age on academic maladjustment and its indirect effect on GPA were statistically significant (DE = −.13, and IE = −.03 on maladjustment, IE = .09 on GPA), meaning that older students tended to perform better in college than their younger counterparts. Among the grit factors, only perseverance had a positive indirect effect on GPA (IE = .15). Furthermore, perseverance and consistency were affected by age through self-control (IEs = .10 and −.13, respectively), not through conscientiousness. Finally, perseverance played a significant role in mediating the paths from self-control and conscientiousness to academic maladjustment (IEs = −.22 and −.08, respectively).

Table 3.

Total, direct, and indirect effects of specific paths.

	Coefficient	SE	LLCI	ULCI
Effects from age to MAL-ACD
Total effect	−.210	.051	−.294	−.126
Total indirect effect	−.081	.025	−.122	−.040
Age→CTR→GRP→MAL-ACD	−.034	.016	−.060	−.007
Direct effect
Age →MAL-ACD	−.129	.057	−.215	−.043
Effects from age to GPA
Total	.093	.026	.051	.136
Total indirect	.093	.026	.051	.136
Age→MAL-ACD →GPA	.057	.025	.016	.099
Age→CTR→GRP→MAL-ACD→GPA	.015	.007	.003	.027
Effects from age to GRP
Total effect	.182	.053	.095	.269
Total indirect effect	.137	.040	.072	.203
Age→CTR→GRP	.098	.034	.043	.153
Effects from age to GRC
Total effect	−.141	.055	−.231	−.051
Total indirect effect	−.076	.036	−.136	−.017
Age→CTR→GRC	−.131	.048	−.209	−.052
Effects from GRP to GPA
Total effect	.152	.041	.085	.219
Total indirect effect	.152	.041	.085	.219
GRP→MAL-ACD→GPA	.152	.041	.085	.219
Effects from CON to MAL-ACD
CON→GRP→MAL-ACD	−.084	.043	−.155	−.014
Effects from CTR to MAL-ACD
Total effect	−.331	.065	−.438	−.223
Total indirect effect	−.331	.065	−.438	−.223
CTR→GRP→MAL-ACD	−.219	.080	−.350	−.088

Note. Bootstrap sample size is 5000. The indirect effect is considered significant when the confidence intervals do not contain zero. LLCI: lower limit of the 95% bias-corrected bootstrap confidence interval; ULCU: upper limit of the 95% bias-corrected bootstrap confidence interval; SE: standardized error; MAL-ACD: academic maladjustment; GRP: grit-perseverance of effort; GRC: grit-consistency of interests; CTR: self-control; CON: conscientiousness; GPA: grade point average.

Only statistically significant effects were presented. Other coefficients calculated from the analysis can be provided upon request.

Discussion

The results of this study confirmed that the grittier students are, the more likely they are to achieve academic success. The findings were consistent with previous research (Duckworth et al., 2007; Duckworth et al., 2011; Lee & Shon, 2009; West et al., 2014). Duckworth et al. (2007) once noted that adults who reported higher educational aspirations achieved higher scores on the grit scale than those who had lower aspirations. This partially explains our results that especially in open universities, it is important for students to possess high levels of persistence and effort to learn in order to complete their academic requirements. Moreover, pursuing long-term goals (such as earning a degree) in spite of obstacles seems especially crucial for nontraditional, adult students in Open Universities because it is often difficult for them to avoid barriers (e.g., work–family balance).

As Duckworth et al. (2011) posited, gritty college students outperformed their less gritty peers in cumulative GPA. The results of this study deepen our understanding of what is known about the association between grit and academic success by showing the relative predictability of grit factors. In other words, perseverance of effort is a better predictor of academic adjustment and GPA than consistency of interests. This result may support the two-factor model of grit. Duckworth developed the two-factor model of grit but many researchers including Duckworth herself have adopted grit as a single construct and used only the total score of grit. In recent years, however, the findings of some empirical studies conducted on high school students (Christensen & Knezek, 2014) and college students (Wolters & Hussain, 2015) also supported the two-factor model of grit. Christensen and Knezek (2014) found that only perseverance of effort is correlated with motivational and persistent indices and concluded that “there are different kinds of grit being measured across the psychometric scales administered to these high school aged participants” (p. 27). Wolters and Hussain also concluded that for university population, grit may be seen as a trait that has two different dimensions and called for further research to examine whether the two dimensions of grit are two different constructs.

Moreover, the result of this study indicates that the facet of perseverance of effort is a better indicator of academic success than consistency of interest. This study was only able to confirm that perseverance is indirectly correlated with GPA scores. This is consistent with the findings of Wolters and Hussain (2015). They hypothesized that the two aspects of grit would account for the variance in college students’ academic success and found that only perseverance of effort serves as a strong positive predictor of the two aspects of motivation and that these aspects accounted for academic outcomes. Consistency of interest had nothing to do with students’ motivation or academic achievement. In addition, according to a study on the relationship between grit and academic outcome of 606 Filipino high school students, perseverance of effort was the only factor that significantly loaded on the higher order grit factor and perseverance of effort was more salient in predicting academic outcomes (Datu et al., 2016b). Considering the fact that some studies have reported a weak correlation between the two facets of grit (e.g., Chang, 2014; Datu et al., 2016b; Jordan, Gabriel, Teasley, Walker, & Schraeder, 2015), the construct of grit should be reexamined with more diverse populations in future research. In sum, it is recommended that follow-up research should be conducted to find more about the topic. The research should deal with the differential effect of grit factors on outcomes and find out what other variables mediate grit and academic maladjustment.

Second, this study revealed that age plays an important role in academic achievement and adjustment for adult college students. Age was found to have direct and indirect effects on academic maladjustment and GPA. Self-control and conscientiousness increased along with the ages of the students, which is consistent with the findings of McCrae et al. (1999) and Srivastava, John, Gosling, and Potter (2003). However, it should be noted that the indirect effect of age on academic success was mediated by grit, especially perseverance of effort. The results support the findings of Duckworth et al. (2011), which said that when education level is accounted for, grit increased monotonically with age. One significant finding of this study was that the indirect effect of age on grit was mediated by self-control, illustrating seemingly related but distinct characteristics of grit and self-control.

Third, this study demonstrated that the directionality and magnitude of the predictive power of the personality antecedents of grit were not similar. Based on the results, we concluded that self-control and conscientiousness have different effects on grit, depending on the degree to which they are associated with perseverance and consistency.

For example, conscientiousness is a personality factor and it makes people abide by social norms and principles and continue to engage in goal-oriented behaviors (Costa & McCrae, 1992). Above all, conscientiousness is known as the main driver behind inhibiting procrastination (Kim, 2003; Moutafi, Furnham, & Crump, 2006; Sapadin & Maguire, 1999; Trautwein et al., 2009), and it has been found that self-regulation, which is one of the subordinate factors of conscientiousness, has the strongest negative correlation with procrastinating behaviors. Self-regulation refers to the ability to start a task and complete it. Thus, people with higher levels of self-regulation are motivated when they have things to do and they carry out the work till they finish it, even though the task at hand may be boring or they are distracted (Costa & McCrae, 1992). Although grit and conscientiousness have many similarities, studies show that the two traits also have differences. For instance, there was a study that found that grit can predict academic achievement while controlling Big Five factors including intelligence and conscientiousness (Lee & Shon, 2009), while another study found that grit did not always account for academic achievement (GPA) when factors like self-control and conscientiousness were included in the analysis model (Ha et al., 2015). Also, grit is different from conscientiousness, in that grit has to do with pursuing long-term goals that are organized in a clear hierarchy of importance (Duckworth, 2016).

Finally, our findings confirm that the grit construct is a salient predictor of academic adjustment and the level of achievement of adult students enrolled in an open university. This implies that grit-related interventions can prevent adult students from experiencing academic maladjustment as well as dropping out while leading them to retention, academic success, and improvements in programs. Unfortunately, academic intervention programs that focus on enhancing grit itself have not yet been introduced. However, we can find important clues from existing programs and learn from the activities that are already being carried out at schools to use them to develop new intervention programs. During her TED talk and an interview with Perkins-Gough of “Educational Leadership,” Duckworth described the growth mindset program developed by Dweck (2017) as an intervention that aims to enhance grit. In that interview, Duckworth mentioned that “children who have more of a growth mind-set tend to be grittier” (Perkins-Gough, 2013, p. 16). The effectiveness of growth mindset programs has been demonstrated across different settings and even the interventions that are delivered online increased academic achievement of students at risk of dropping out (Paunesku et al., 2015). Duckworth said that it is possible to enhance grit in students by educating students about the importance and the challenges of deliberate practice and changing students’ beliefs about effort and success (Perkins-Gough, 2013). Another possible example of an intervention program is the character education program of KIPP schools introduced in 1994 to 47 fifth graders in Houston. This program focuses on seven characteristics including zest, grit, optimism, self-control, gratitude, social intelligence, and curiosity. Later, the graduating students of the Class of 1999 at Bronx’s KIPP Academy turned out to have earned the highest score in Bronx and major media outlets such as the New York Times reported on their success (Tough, 2012). Duckworth (2016) also defined interest, practice, purpose, and hope are as four antecedents of grit and we believe that grit-enhancing interventions should focus on these four constructs.

Limitations and recommendations for future research

This study took an important step forward in terms of the investigation of grit and its relationship with other psychological constructs of adult female students. Still, the study has a few limitations. First, the grit scale we adopted for this study consists of self-reported questionnaires and as a result, this research inevitably shares the limitations of self-report instruments. In addition, the developers of the grit scale noted that the items are relatively transparent, which means that it could cause some bias in the matter of social desirability (Duckworth et al., 2007). Second, this study assumed that grit is a new personality trait. Yet, there is a possibility that behavioral variables such as deliberate practice (e.g., Duckworth et al., 2011) may mediate the relationship between grit and academic outcomes. We expected that grittier students would manage their time more efficiently in completing undergraduate coursework while undertaking multiple roles. We hope that future research will explore the mediating or moderating variables and observable behaviors of grittier students because that will contribute to theoretical advances of the grit construct and to the development of grit-enhancing intervention programs. Finally, the participants of this study were recruited from one institution in Korea, making it difficult for the research findings to be applied to other populations. To be sure, female students participating in this study are very diverse in ages, educational attainment, socioeconomic status, regional distribution, etc. However, this does not necessarily mean that the results of the study would turn out to be the same among other populations as well. Future research should examine the relationships between variables demonstrated in this study across different institutes, cultures, or age groups.

Footnotes

Article Notes

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