Grit and Self-Efficacy: Are Both Essential for Children's Academic Success?

• In Event: What Is True About Grit: Relations With Self-Regulation and Motivation and New Innovative Interventions

Abstract

Theoretical Framework

Although cognitive ability measures have a long history of predicting academic achievement, psychological factors such as grit and self-efficacy have also been shown to predict achievement, even when cognitive ability is controlled (Farrington et al., 2012). Researchers contend that traits like grit “might be essential to success no matter what the domain” (Duckworth et al., 2007, p. 1087). Bandura (1997) has suggested that the context-sensitivity of efficacy beliefs is one reason why they consistently predict academic performance. Duckworth et al. called for future research to investigate the relationship between grit and self-efficacy in predicting achievement. The present study addresses this call. An examination of the relative predictive power of domain-general grit alongside domain-specific self-efficacy on academic achievement has not been explored with samples of school children.

The purpose of this study is to examine elementary and middle school students’ domain-general grit and its relationship to self-efficacy and achievement in reading and math. We first assessed the psychometric properties of items measuring grit. We next explored whether grit differs by gender, socioeconomic status, or grade level. We then examined relationships among grit, self-efficacy, and achievement. Lastly, we examined how these variables were related to teachers’ ratings of student motivation.

Method

Public school students (N = 2,430) in Grades 4-8 (54% White; 31% African American, 15% other ethnicity; 56% receiving free or reduced-price lunch) completed a survey in reading and math three times during the school year. Self-report measures included grit (10 items; VIA Strength Survey for Children; Peterson & Seligman, 2001, selected for its wording appropriate for young respondents), subject-specific self-efficacy (7 items), and self-efficacy for self-regulated learning (11 items; Bandura, 2006; see Table 1). Norm-referenced and criterion-referenced standardized achievement scores were obtained from school district. Teachers rated each student’s motivation in reading and math.

Results

Exploratory factor analysis revealed a unidimensional 8-item Grit factor (α = .86). Analysis of variance indicated that girls, students receiving subsidized lunch, and those in upper grades were less gritty (.18 ≤ d ≤ .74). Grit was positively correlated with self-efficacy (.38 ≤ r ≤ .58), modestly correlated with teacher ratings of motivation in reading and math (r = .23, .22), and weakly or uncorrelated with achievement (.01 ≤ r ≤ .11). Regression analysis indicated that subject self-efficacy was positively related and grit negatively related to reading and math achievement. However, both grit and self-efficacy predicted teacher ratings of student motivation (see Table 2).

Discussion and Significance

Identifying and nurturing achievement- and ability-related beliefs has become one basis for interventions aimed at supporting student success (e.g., Duckworth et al., 2011; Yeager et al., 2014). Our findings reveal that self-efficacy predicted achievement more strongly than did grit, indicating that students who think they can do well typically do. Grit was in fact negatively associated with standardized achievement scores, as previously reported (Duckworth et al., 2007). Future research should consider the possibility that grit is partly determined by self-efficacy and test whether grit mediates the relationship between self-efficacy and achievement.

Authors

• Ellen L. Usher, University of Kentucky

• Caihong Li, University of Kentucky

• Amanda R. Butz, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Joanne P. Rojas, University of Kentucky, Human Development Institute