A reciprocal, moderated mediation model of grit, engagement, and literacy achievement among dual language learners

Trait and state of grit among middle school students in South Korea: the influence of peer, teacher, and parental variables

Psychological constructs encompass both stable traits and unstable state factors. This study investigates the stability of grit subfactors among middle school students, focusing on those experiencing poor developmental-stage-environment fit. Utilizing the trait-state-occasion (TSO) model, we delineate the consistency of interest (CI) level and perseverance of effort (PE) characteristics and statuses. Moreover, we introduce variables concerning peer, teacher, and parental relationships, recognized as significant influences on middle school students' development. Data from 2,380 middle school students from the Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey 2018 are analyzed. Results indicate that both CI and PE exhibit stable traits influenced by time-invariant characteristics. Additionally, CI and PE encompass both stable and changeable state aspects. Teacher relationships and parental autonomy support positively impact the trait and state of CI and PE, while peer relationships have a negative effect on CI and a positive effect on PE at specific state points. Our findings underscore the stability yet malleability of grit subfactors, with both CI and PE demonstrating nuanced responses to environmental influences. Our study also identified the positive impact of teacher relationships and parental autonomy support on both CI and PE trait and state, highlighting the important role of a supportive environment in fostering grit.

The Dynamic Relationships between Educational Expectations and Science Learning Performance among Students in Secondary School and Their Later Completion of a STEM Degree

The educational expectations of students for themselves have been commonly corroborated to directly predict their higher academic performance. Nevertheless, some recent research has reported that the academic performance of students may also contribute to their better development of educational expectations. Moreover, more advanced but limited research has argued that both the educational expectations and academic performance of students are developmental and changeable over time rather than fixed and stable. Due to the importance of students' science learning performance during the years of secondary school in relation to their later STEM development in adulthood, the current study is intended to investigate how the developmental and growth trajectories of students' educational expectations and science learning performance reciprocally affect each other directly and inversely in secondary school and then later contribute to their successful completion of a STEM degree in adulthood. Based on the six-wave panel data containing a nationally representative sample of adolescent students from the Longitudinal Study of American Youth (LSAY), the current study was conducted by parallel-process latent growth curve modeling (PP-LGCM) and found that both the developmental and growth trajectories of students' educational expectations and science learning performance were mutually predictive of each other across the years of secondary school, which then contributed to their later higher likelihood of successful completion of a STEM degree in adulthood. In addition, the conditional direct PP-LGCM model, which is to model the effects of students' educational expectations on their science learning performance, and the conditional inverse PP-LGCM model, which is to model the effects of students' science learning performance on their educational expectations, showed significant within- and cross-domain effects differently. The implications of the study findings related to educational reforms and policy designs are discussed.

Assessment of the Short Grit Scale in patients with substance use disorder: Psychometric properties and patient characteristics

Background: Recovery from substance use disorder requires sustained effort and perseverance. Hence, the resilience factor of grit may be important for people in recovery. Little research has been conducted on grit in patients with substance use disorder (SUD), especially in a large and varied sample.Objectives: To analyze the psychometric properties of the Short Grit Scale (Grit-S) in patients with SUD and to use demographic and clinical characteristics to predict variance in Grit-S scores.Methods: Participants completed the Grit-S and other self-report measures. Psychometric properties of the Grit-S were assessed in outpatients (N = 94, 77.7% male) and a hierarchical regression predicted Grit-S variance in inpatients (N = 1238, 65.0% male).Results: The Grit-S demonstrated good internal consistency (α=.75) and strong test-retest reliability (adjusted r = .79, p < .001). Mean Grit-S score was 3.15, lower than other clinical samples reported in the literature. Regression modeling indicated a moderate, statistically significant association between demographic and clinical characteristics and Grit-S scores (R2 = 15.5%, p < .001). Of particular interest, the positive factor of recovery protection showed the strongest association with Grit-S of all variables assessed (β=.185 vs. β = .052-.175 for the remaining significant independent variables).Conclusion: The psychometric properties of the Grit-S in patients with SUD support its use in this population. Moreover, the particularly low grit scores among inpatients with SUDs and the association of grit scores with substance use risk and recovery factors suggest that grit could be useful as a treatment target in this population.

A model of teachers’ growth mindset, teaching enjoyment, work engagement, and teacher grit among EFL teachers

Because of the importance of positive emotions in second language (L2) acquisition, researchers have undertaken studies to investigate L2 learners’ emotions. Nevertheless, L2 teachers’ emotions still require more scholarly attention. Against this backdrop, we sought to test a model of teachers’ growth mindset, teaching enjoyment, work engagement, and teacher grit among English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers. To this end, 486 Chinese EFL teachers volunteered to partake in an online survey and completed the questionnaires of the four constructs in question. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed to ensure the construct validity of the used scales. Then structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the hypothesized model. SEM results indicated that teaching enjoyment, teacher grit, and growth mindset directly predicted EFL teachers’ work engagement. In addition, teaching enjoyment affected work engagement indirectly via the mediation of teacher grit. Likewise, teacher grit mediated the effect of growth mindset on teachers’ work engagement. Finally, the implications of these findings are discussed.

Die Rolle von Beharrlichkeit und beständigem Interesse (Grit) für das Lernen in berufsbildenden Schulen

Zusammenfassung. In den letzten 10 Jahren wurden Beharrlichkeit und beständiges Interesse (Grit) verstärkt als zentrale, motivationale und volitionale Prädiktoren der akademischen Leistung propagiert und kritisch diskutiert. Wurde anfangs primär der direkte Zusammenhang untersucht, versuchen aktuellere Studien das komplexe Wirkungsgefüge von Grit im Verein mit anderen motivationalen Lernmerkmalen zu entwirren. Dennoch sind Studien zu indirekten Effekten von Grit auf Schülerleistungen rar. An einer Stichprobe von 393 Schülerinnen und Schülern kaufmännischer Schulen aus Österreich wurde geprüft, inwiefern individuelle Voraussetzungen erfolgreichen Lernens den positiven Zusammenhang zwischen den Grit-Dimensionen Beharrlichkeit und beständigem Interesse und der Schülerleistung mediieren. Befunde zeigen, dass insbesondere die Beharrlichkeit indirekt über das Vorwissen, das akademische Selbstkonzept, das Lernengagement und den Einsatz kognitiver Lernstrategien mit den Schülerleistungen zusammenhängt. Zudem wird der positive Zusammenhang zwischen beständigem Interesse und höheren Schülerleistungen über die Freiheit von Prüfungsangst vermittelt. Da die direkten Zusammenhänge zwischen Beharrlichkeit und den Schülerleistungen meist nur partiell mediiert werden, und Beharrlichkeit mit nahezu allen untersuchten individuellen Voraussetzungen erfolgreichen Lernens positiv assoziiert ist, kann für das Lernen im kaufmännischen Unterricht behauptet werden, dass Beharrlichkeit ein zentrales Konstrukt mit hohen Effekten – ähnlich dem akademischen Selbstkonzept und dem Lernengagement – darstellt. Dieser Befund wird vor dem Hintergrund der Grenzen der Studie kritisch diskutiert.

Beyond Passion and Perseverance: Review and Future Research Initiatives on the Science of Grit

Grit, which is originally conceptualized as passion and perseverance for long-term goals, has been associated with optimal performance. Although previous meta-analytic and systematic reviews summarized how grit relates to performance outcomes, they possess considerable shortcomings, such as (a) absence of summary on the association of grit with well-being outcomes; (b) absence of discussion on social, psychological, and emotional mechanisms linking grit to well-being; and (c) lack of elaboration on how alternative models can resolve fundamental problems in the grit construct. This integrative review provides a comprehensive summary on the link of grit to performance and well-being outcomes. Importantly, it elaborates how alternative models can potentially address flaws in the existing grit theory. Future research directions are discussed on how to move forward the science of grit.

Dual language learners' grit, engagement, and literacy achievement in elementary school

The goal of this short-term longitudinal study was to examine the functioning of the grit measure; grit's relation to emotional engagement; and grit's prediction of later literacy achievement, above and beyond emotional engagement, among dual language learners. Data were collected at two time points four months apart with dual language learner, third- through fifth-grade students ( n = 142; 75% Latina/o; mean age 9.47 years old; 54% female). Results suggested that student- and teacher-reported grit scores were reliable and fit the two-factor construct, and grit overlapped with engagement. We found that teacher-reported engagement and student- and teacher-reported grit perseverance of effort (grit-pe) were significant sole predictors of Time 2 literacy achievement; teacher-reported engagement, not grit, remained a significant sole predictor even when controlling for Time 1 literacy achievement. When including grit-pe, grit consistency of interests, and engagement in the same model, student-reported grit-pe was the only significant predictor of Time 2 literacy achievement, without Time 1 literacy as a control. Discussion centers on grit-pe's utility for prediction of literacy achievement, above and beyond similar socioemotional constructs, among young dual language learners.

Building Grit: The Longitudinal Pathways between Mindset, Commitment, Grit, and Academic Outcomes

Despite academics' enthusiasm about the concept of grit (defined as consistency of interest and perseverance of effort), its benefit for academic achievement has recently been challenged. Drawing from a longitudinal sample (N = 2018; 55.3% female; sixth-nineth grades) from Finland, this study first aimed to investigate and replicate the association between grit and achievement outcomes (i.e., academic achievement and engagement). Further, the present study examined whether growth mindset and goal commitment impacted grit and whether grit acted as a mediator between growth mindset, goal commitment, and achievement outcomes. The results showed that the perseverance facet of grit in the eighth grade was associated with school achievement and engagement in the nineth grade, after controlling for students' conscientiousness, academic persistence, prior achievement and engagement, gender and SES, although the effect on engagement was stronger than on achievement. In addition, grit was predicted by goal commitment in the sixth grade, but not by the growth mindset in the sixth grade. Finally, the perseverance of effort (not the consistency of interest) mediated the effect of goal commitment on engagement. These findings suggest that grit is associated with increased engagement and academic achievement; and practitioners who wish to improve grit of adolescents may encourage goal commitment more than growth mindset.