Grit and perseverance of effort as predictors of college student academic success

How Grit Is A Positive Predictor of Academic Success Among College Students
Boerma, M., & Neill, J. (2020). The Role of Grit and Self-Control in University Student Academic Achievement and Satisfaction. College Student Journal, 54(4), 431-442.
This study aimed at examining the relationship between grit dimensions and self-control on university students' GPA and their academic satisfaction. 143 participants took part in the study, which made use of an online self-report survey. The sample size consisted of students from eight Australian universities comprising 110 females and 33 males. The researchers hypothesized there will be a moderation effect whereby, the perseverance of effort and self-control would combine to explain academic outcomes. The results of the study indicated there was a relatively higher GPA among those students who had the grit facet of the perseverance of effort. According to the researcher, this was a better predictor of GPA as compared to self-control and conscientiousness.
This article demonstrates that students who have the grit facet of perseverance also have higher GPA scores, which supports the current research paper. With a focus on the impact of grit on different students, the researchers have managed to demonstrate the importance of having grit over other factors like self-control and conscientiousness. The most vital factor that can ensure a student manages to maintain a high GPA is grit. Therefore, grittier students will have better academic outcomes as compared to the students without grit.
Buzzetto-Hollywood, N., Quinn, K., Wang, W., & Hill, A. (2019). Grit in online education. Journal of Education, Society and Behavioural Science, 1-11.
The authors focused on student success in online education and the role grit plays in student performance for fully online courses. The study had 160 student participants in the first phase and 60 students were selected randomly for the second phase of the study. In the first phase, the students completed the standard 12-Question GRIT Scale survey. In the second phase, the student grades of a random 60 students who had taken part in phase one were examined. The authors established that higher grit scores related positively to perceived self-efficacy and self-discipline but it was not possible to confirm if grit does play a significant role in the success of the student in online education.
There is a push towards online education and it is vital to understand if students with high grit scores would perform better in online education. Sadly, there was no link between grit and student academic success for online education. It seems that grit cannot be a predictor of student success in academics when the student is doing online courses. Therefore, it is vital to determine what differentiates online education from normal classroom education for grit to be effective in one and not the other.
Fong, C. J., & Kim, Y. W. (2019). A clash of constructs? Re-examining grit in light of academic buoyancy and future time perspective. Current Psychology, 1-14.
There might be some weaknesses in grit that make it hard for everyone to believe in the impact it has on student academic performance. The authors of this article wanted to further investigate the consistency of interest and perseverance of effort, which are a dimension of grit together with other factors like future time perspective and academic buoyancy to determine if they were predictors of academic achievement. The study sample was 328 undergraduate students from a large southwestern university. The study participants completed an online questionnaire. The results of the study support the importance of grit and how it can be used as a predictor of academic achievement. The two grit dimensions focused on this study were vital in predicting the performance of the student.
With a focus on two dimensions of grit namely consistency of interest and perseverance of effort, this article offers further insight on the importance of grit as a predictor of academic success. The authors compared the impact of grit with future time perspective and academic buoyancy and they established that grit offers a unique motivational perspective over the other two. Therefore, using this study we can further support our hypothesis on the relationship of grit to student performance.
Hodge, B., Wright, B., & Bennett, P. (2018). The role of grit in determining engagement and academic outcomes for university students. Research in Higher Education, 59(4), 448-460.
This article was a cross-sectional survey study aimed at measuring grit, engagement, and academic productivity among 395 University students in Australia. The authors wanted to determine if grit was related to the engagement and productivity of university students. The study participants comprised 345 female and 50 male students. The study results indicate there was no difference in the component of grit between males and females, but this could be due to there being an imbalance in the study participants where there were more females than males. However, students who were the first in their family to attend university were discovered to have higher levels of grit factor (effort) over their counterparts. The authors discovered effort contributed more towards predicting productivity over interest. The study revealed there was a positive relationship between grit, engagement, and academic productivity.
The article highlights the relevance of grit as a desirable student characteristic for determining the future performance of the student in academics. Having demonstrated there is a link between grit, engagement, and academic productivity, this article supports our topic in that we can see students with high grit will also be successful academically. Therefore, we can use the results of this study to push for students to be encouraged to develop grit over other factors if they are to succeed academically.

Strayhorn, T. L. (2014). What role does grit play in the academic success of black male collegians at predominantly white institutions? Journal of African American Studies, 18(1), 1-10.
The authors were testing the importance of grit in predicting the grades of Black male students who were attending a predominantly White institution. The study made us of multivariate and hierarchical regression techniques. It used a sample of 140 Black male students who had enrolled full-time in a large predominantly White university. The study results indicate grit is positively associated with better academic outcomes for Black males. The researchers also established that grit does influence grades in college for Black males. The study determined grit does predict achievement in challenging areas more than talent. Grittier Black male students were shown to earn higher grades in college as compared to their peers who had similar GPAs, education aspirations, and ACT scores.
In most studies, the focus is on White students, but with a focus on Black male students, this study affirms that regardless of race, grit plays a vital factor in determining the performance of a student. Having compared students with grit to their peers who had high GPA and ACT scores and establishing that grittier students outperformed them indicates the role played by grit in the academic performance of the student. Therefore, grit becomes a positive predictor of how a student's academic performance will be in college. Grit can be used to encourage Black students to exert themselves and persevere through tough and challenging situations.
Vela, J. C., Lu, M.-T. P., Lenz, A. S., & Hinojosa, K. (2015). Positive psychology and familial factors as predictors of Latina/o students’ psychological grit. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 37(3), 287-303.
The authors wanted to examine the presence of meaning of life, search for meaning in life, family importance, and hope that would influence 128 Latina/o students' psychological grit. They used five different questionnaires and scales to measure each of the aforementioned factors and applied multiple regression analysis. The authors established that the search for meaning in life and hope did predict psychological grit. Having higher levels of search for meaning in life negatively predicted psychological grit, while higher levels of hope positively predicted psychological grit. The researchers established familismo was not a contributing factor to the prediction of psychological grit among the Latina/o college students.
This article is vital for our present study as it focuses on the Latina/o population. With a focus on this population, we can determine that grit is also effective across different populations and not only on one race or population. There are limited studies that have focused exclusively on the Latina/o population and this makes this study key to our present study as it offers a missing piece in our understanding of the role of grit in Latina/o students. The methods the students can use to increase their psychological grit are the focus of this study.
Wolters, C. A., & Hussain, M. (2015). Investigating grit and its relations with college students’ self-regulated learning and academic achievement. Metacognition and Learning, 10(3), 293-311.
This article aimed at investigating grit and its relation to students' self-regulated learning and academic achievement. The study made use of 213 college students who agreed to complete an online self-report survey. Female students comprised 88% of the population making them the study participants primarily female. The authors established grittier students are less likely to procrastinate, which is one of the principal forms of academic self-handicapping. Perseverance of effort was shown as a consistent and adaptive predictor for all indicators of student self-regulated learning. This aspect of grit was found to predict student achievement before accounting for students' self-regulated learning.
This study focuses on students’ self-regulated learning and their academic achievement, which is vital to determine what motivates a student to learn by himself or herself. The study results add to the current literature in that it increases the knowledge and support for grit as a determiner for student academic performance. Grittier students are shown to have better academic performance and this is supported by the authors. The possibility of determining the students who would perform better academically should be a welcome strategy for pushing those less gritty students and motivating them. Students with grit should also be encouraged to push on to ensure they do not lose focus.


References
Boerma, M., & Neill, J. (2020). The Role of Grit and Self-Control in University Student Academic Achievement and Satisfaction. College Student Journal, 54(4), 431-442.
Buzzetto-Hollywood, N., Quinn, K., Wang, W., & Hill, A. (2019). Grit in online education. Journal of Education, Society and Behavioural Science, 1-11.
Fong, C. J., & Kim, Y. W. (2019). A clash of constructs? Re-examining grit in light of academic buoyancy and future time perspective. Current Psychology, 1-14.
Hodge, B., Wright, B., & Bennett, P. (2018). The role of grit in determining engagement and academic outcomes for university students. Research in Higher Education, 59(4), 448-460.
Strayhorn, T. L. (2014). What role does grit play in the academic success of black male collegians at predominantly white institutions? Journal of African American Studies, 18(1), 1-10.
Vela, J. C., Lu, M.-T. P., Lenz, A. S., & Hinojosa, K. (2015). Positive psychology and familial factors as predictors of Latina/o students’ psychological grit. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 37(3), 287-303.
Wolters, C. A., & Hussain, M. (2015). Investigating grit and its relations with college students’ self-regulated learning and academic achievement. Metacognition and Learning, 10(3), 293-311.