The Dirt on Grit: Examining Relations with School Adjustment,

School Performance, and Theories of Intelligence

Whitney Borton and Jackie GrelleHanover College

Adjustment & Performance

• School Performance

• School Adjustment (Corrigan, 2003)

– Peer relationships– Behavior– Teachers

Grit

• Character plays a role in school adjustment (Tough, 2011)

• Grit: “perseverance and passion for long-term goals” (Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews, and Kelly, 2007)

– West Point Students

Minority and Low SES

• Increased probability for low school adjustment

– More academic, personal, and social problems (Johnson, 2000)

• Some schools have implemented character development programs– KIPP network charter schools

• First empirical evidence to show that this is beneficial

Research Question 1

• How does grit relate to school adjustment and self-reported school performance?

• Hypotheses– Grit will positively predict school adjustment.– Grit will positively predict school performance.

Current Predictors of Grit

• Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews, & Kelly, 2007

– Age

– Education

– Personality

Proposed Predictors of Grit

• Theories of Intelligence (Dweck & Leggett, 1988)

– Entity Theory

Performance goals

– Incremental Theory

Learning goals

Research Question 2

• Are theories of intelligence predictors of grit?

• Hypothesis

– Students with incremental theories of intelligence

will have higher grit scores than students with entity

theories of intelligence.

Participants

• 136 middle school students– Urban school district in Midwestern city– Public, magnet middle and high school

• 6th graders: 50, 7th graders: 39, 8th graders: 46

• Females: 87, Males: 48

Ethnicity

65%15%

12%

8%

Black

Hispanic

Multiracial

White

Procedure

• Passive Parent Consent

– Students signed assent forms

• Administered survey during school hours

– End of January

• Read survey out loud to students

Measures

• School Adjustment – Child (Revised) (Corrigan, 2003)

– Relationships with other students (α = .76) “I do not have many friends at school this year.”

– Academic and disciplinary difficulties (α = .69) “Schoolwork is really hard this year.”

– General aspects about school and teachers (α = .76) “My school is a place where kids will succeed.”

Measures

• Grit Scale (Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews, & Kelley, 2007)

– “My interests change from year to year.”

– “I am a hard worker.”

– α = .69

Measures

• Theories of Intelligence (Dweck, Chui, & Hong, 1995)

– “You have a certain amount of intelligence, and you really can’t do

much to change it.”

– Scale of 1 (strongly agree) to 6 (strongly disagree)

– Higher scores mean incremental theory of intelligence

– α = .81

Measures

• Demographics

– Age

– Gender

– Year in school

– Ethnicity

Measures

• Self-Reported School Performance (Dornbusch, Ritter, Leiderman, Roberts, & Fraleigh, 1987)

– “Which best describes your grades?”

– Mostly A’s, about half A’s and half B’s, mostly C’s…

– Converted to numbers on 4.0 scale

Ex: mostly A’s = 4

– Correlated highly with actual GPA: r= .76

Grit as a Predictor

• Four regression analyses

– Outcome variables: subscales of school adjustment

and school performance

– Predictors: grit scores, gender, ethnicity, grade level

Grit as a Predictor

• Relationships with other students β = .22, t(128) = 2.56, p = .01

• Academic and disciplinary difficulties β = .44, t(128) = 5.52, p < .001

• General aspects about school and teachers β = .44, t(128) = 5.66, p < .001

• School performance β = .30, t(127) = 3.56, p = .001

Predictor of Grit

• Regression analysis

– Outcome variable: grit

– Predictors: theory of intelligence, gender, ethnicity,

grade level

• β = .24, t(128) = 2.80, p = .006

Hypotheses

• Grit will positively predict all three subscales of school adjustment.

• Grit will positively predict school performance.

• Students with incremental theories of intelligence will have higher grit scores than students with entity theories of intelligence.

Implications & Interventions

• Possibility of success for disadvantaged students

• Increase school adjustment and performance

• Grit– Currently no interventions to increase grit

• Incremental theory of intelligence– E.g., thinking skills intervention (Burke & Williams, 2012)

Limitations

• Concurrent design– Longitudinal: predict changes in school adjustment over

time

• Correlational design– Experimental: cause-and-effect inferences

Questions?