Multidimensional Grit Scale: Development and Psychometric Validation

Abstract

In recent years, grit has drawn increasing attention from both researchers and practitioners. Despite the utility and popularity, controversies revolve around the structure and measurement of grit. To address this, the present paper gives an account of development and psychometric validation of multidimensional grit scale (MGS) – a new tool to comprehensively measure grit. The MGS has five factors namely perseverance, passion, purpose, patience, and psychological flexibility (i.e. 5 Ps). Following the item generation process, a series of six studies by taking higher education students as participants were carried out to develop the MGS; study 1 (content validity, n = 6 experts), study 2 (pilot study, n = 60), study 3 (exploratory factor analysis (EFA), n = 236), study 4 (confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), n = 285), study 5 (reliability assessment, n = 102), and study 6 (validity testing, n = 248). The EFA and CFA results revealed a five-factor correlational model positioning grit as a latent two-level hierarchical construct comprising of five first-order factors. The reliability analysis showed that the 15-item MGS possessed good internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.85) and test-retest reliability (stability r = 0.91, p < 0.001). The MGS and its dimensions had a moderate positive correlation with triarchic grit and self-efficacy scores indicating criterion-related and convergent validities, respectively. External locus of control was found to have a moderate negative association with the MGS garnering evidence for discriminant validity of the newly developed tool.

Keywords

grit multidimensional grit scale psychometric validity reliability analysis five-factor grit structure

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