The Dirt on Grit: Examining
Relations with School Adjustment,
School Performance, and Theories of
Intelligence
Whitney Borton and Jackie Grelle
Hanover 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 selfreported 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
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?