A new measure of grit: How does it relate to achievement goal orientations, goal adjustment and flourishing in young adults — ASN Events
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  3. A new measure of grit: How does it relate to achievement goal orientations, goal adjustment and flourishing in young adults

A new measure of grit: How does it relate to achievement goal orientations, goal adjustment and flourishing in young adults (#176)

Afifa Anjum 1 , Durrya Alqarni 1 , Rafia Rafique 1
  1. University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan, Lahore, PUNJAB, Pakistan

Background

Grit has been linked with achievement and mental health. Duckworth et al. (2007) described grit comprising of two factors; passion and perseverance. Vellerand et al. (2003) proposed two types of passion i.e. obsessive and harmonious; and the theory of character strengths (perseverance is one of them) differentiates between over, under and optimal use of character strengths (Niemiec, 2019) and relates optimal use to positive outcomes.

Aims

Keeping in view this theoretical premise, we developed a scale of grit that includes both types of passion and three levels of perseverance. We proposed that 1) grit will be related to achievement goal orientation; and 2) harmonious passion and optimal use of perseverance will predict goal adjustment and flourishing. 

Method

In Phase-1, items were generated based on literature review and interviews of young adult high achievers. Exploratory factor analysis (n=218) of the new 22 item scale provided evidence for the five factor solution i.e under use, optimal and over use of perseverance, harmonious passion and obsessive passion. The reliabilities and item to scale correlations ranged from r = .74 to r = .86. Convergent and divergent validity of the scale was established by correlating scores with positive and negative affect. In Phase-2, the relationship between grit, achievement goal orientations, goal adjustment and flourishing was explored, while controlling for intelligence, self-efficacy and GPA/percentage. 

Results

The results of correlation analysis revealed associations between main study variables in the proposed direction except for a few. As hypothesized, harmonious passion and optimal use of perseverance positively predicted flourishing, underuse of perseverance didn’t while overuse and obsessive passion negatively predicted flourishing. Goal adjustment and achievement goal orientation mediated some of the relationships. 

Conclusion

The study has important implications in understanding that the optimal level of grit is required for positive outcomes whereas over and obsessive levels might be detrimental.

  1. Vallerand, R. J., Blanchard, C. M., Mageau, G. A., Koestner, R., Ratelle, C., Léonard, M.,& Gagné, M. (2003). Les passions de l'ame: On obsessive and harmonious passion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 756–767.
  2. Niemiec, R. M. (2019). Finding the golden mean: the overuse, underuse, and optimal use of character strengths. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 32(3-4), 453-471.
  3. Duckworth, A. L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M. D., & Kelly, D. R. (2007). Grit: perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(6), 1087–1101.
  • Please select up to 3 keywords from the following list to best describe your submission content: Achievement, Education, Strengths
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