This study evaluated the factor structure, measurement invariance, criterion-related and incremental validity of the Chinese version of the Academic Grit Scale (AGS) among 723 adolescents from mainland China. Results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported the single-factor model, exhibiting scalar invariance across gender and partial scalar invariance across groups (i.e., middle and high school students). The AGS total score showed internal consistency and temporal stability when used one month later. Moreover, academic grit was shown to be positively correlated with academic achievement, general grit, and dimensional student engagement. Academic grit also predicted academic achievement after isolating the effects of the related variables (i.e., general grit and student engagement) and overlapping components of academic grit and the related variables. Overall, the Chinese version of the AGS demonstrated adequate reliability and validity and was shown to be a useful tool for examining academic grit in Chinese adolescents.
AkosP.KretchmarJ. (2017). Investigating grit at a non-cognitive predictor of college success. The Review of Higher Education, 40(2), 163–186. https://doi.org/10.1353/rhe.2017.0000
2.
AntonakisJ.BendahanS.JacquartP.LaliveR. (2014). Causality and endogeneity: Problems and solutions. In DayD. V. (Ed.), The oxford handbook of leadership and organizations (pp. 93–117). Oxford University Press
3.
Arco-TiradoJ. L.Fernández-MartínF. D.HoyleR. H. (2018). Development and validation of a Spanish version of the Grit-S scale. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 96. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00096
4.
AreepattamannilS.KhineM. S. (2018). Evaluating the psychometric properties of the Original Grit Scale using Rasch Analysis in an Arab adolescent sample. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 36(8), 856–862. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734282917719976
5.
BarkerC.PistrangN.ElliotR. (1994). Research methods in clinical and counselling psychology. Wiley
6.
BazelaisP.LemayD. J.DoleckT. (2016). How does grit impact college students’ academic achievement in science?European Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 4(1), 33–43. https://doi.org/10.30935/scimath/9451
7.
BelsleyD. (1991). Conditioning diagnostics: Collinearity and weak data in regression. Wiley
8.
ChangW. C.WongW. K.TeoG. (2000). The socially oriented and individually oriented achievement motivation of Singaporean Chinese students. Journal of Psychology in Chinese Societies, 1(2), 39–63
9.
ChenF. (2007). Sensitivity of goodness of fit indexes to lack of measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 14(3), 464–504. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705510701301834
10.
CheungG. W.LauR. S. (2012). A direct comparison approach for testing measurement invariance. Organizational Research Methods, 15(2), 167–198. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428111421987
11.
CheungG. W.RensvoldR. B. (2002). Evaluating goodness-of-fit indexes for testing measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 9(2), 233–255. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15328007SEM0902_5
12.
CicchettiD. V. (1994). Guidelines, criteria, and rules of thumb for evaluating normed and standardized assessment instruments in psychology. Psychological Assessment, 6(4), 284–290. https://doi.org/10.1037/1040-3590.6.4.284
13.
ClarkK. N.MaleckiC. K. (2019). Academic Grit Scale: Psychometric properties and associations with achievement and life satisfaction. Journal of School Psychology, 72, 49–66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2018.12.001
14.
CormierD. L.DunnJ. G. H.Causgrove DunnJ. (2019). Examining the domain specificity of grit. Personality and Individual Differences, 139, 349–354. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2018.11.026
15.
CredèM.TynanM.HarmsP. D. (2017). Much ado about grit: A meta-analytic synthesis of the grit literature. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 113(3), 492–511. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000102
16.
DatuJ. A. D. (2017). Sense of relatedness is linked to higher grit in a collectivist setting. Personality and Individual Differences, 105, 135–138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.09.039
17.
DatuJ. A. D.YuenM.ChenG. (2017). Development and validation of the Triarchic Model of Grit Scale (TMGS): Evidence from Filipino undergraduate students. Personality and Individual Differences, 114, 198–205. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.04.012
18.
DatuJ. A. D. (2021). Beyond passion and perseverance: Review and future research initiatives on the science of grit. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 545526. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.545526
19.
DatuJ. A. D.ValdezJ. P. M.KingR. B. (2016). Perseverance counts but consistency does not! Validating the Short Grit Scale in a collectivist setting. Current Psychology, 35(1), 121–130. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-015-9374-2
20.
DatuJ. A. D.YangW. (2021). Academic buoyancy, academic motivation, and academic achievement among Filipino high school students. Current Psychology, 40(8), 3958–3965. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-019-00358-y
21.
DatuJ. A. D.YuenM.FungE.ZhangJ.ChanS.WuF. (2022). The satisfied lives of gifted and gritty adolescents: Linking grit to career self-efficacy and life satisfaction. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 42(8), 1052–1072. https://doi.org/10.1177/02724316221096082
22.
DatuJ. A. D.ZhangJ. (2021). Validating the Chinese version of Triarchic Model of Grit Scale in technical–vocational college students. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 39(3), 381–387. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734282920974813
23.
DisabatoD. J.GoodmanF. R.KashdanT. B. (2019). Is grit relevant to well-being and strengths? Evidence across the globe for separating perseverance of effort and consistency of interests. Journal of Personality, 87(2), 194–211. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12382
24.
DuckworthA. L.PetersonC.MatthewsM. D.KellyD. R. (2007). Grit: Perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(6), 1087–1101. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.92.6.1087
25.
DuckworthA. L.QuinnP. D. (2009). Development and validation of the Short Grit Scale (Grit-S). Journal of Personality Assessment, 91(2), 166–174. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223890802634290
26.
FlanaganK. M.EinarsonJ. (2017). Gender, math confidence, and grit: Relationships with quantitative skills and performance in an undergraduate biology course. CBE Life Sciences Education, 16(3), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.16-08-0253
27.
FredricksJ. A.BlumenfeldP. C.ParisA. H. (2004). School engagement: Potential of the concept, state of the evidence. Review of Educational Research, 74(1), 59–109. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543074001059
28.
FwuB. J.WangH. H.ChenS. W.WeiC. F. (2016). Effort counts and goals matter: The effects of effort and achievement goals on moral image, approval, and disapproval in a Chinese cultural context. In KingR. B.BernardoA. B. I. (Eds.), The psychology of Asian learners (pp. 337–353). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-576-1_21
29.
GonzalezO.CanningJ. R.SmythH.MackinnonD. P. (2020). A psychometric evaluation of the Short Grit Scale: A closer look at its factor structure and scale functioning. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 36(4), 646–657. https://doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759/a000535
30.
GuerreroL. R.DudovitzR.ChungP. J.DosanjhK. K.WongM. D. (2016). Grit: A potential protective factor against substance use and other risk behaviors among Latino adolescents. Academic Pediatrics, 16(3), 275–281. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acap.2015.12.016
31.
HanK.ColarelliS. M.WeedN. C. (2019). Methodological and statistical advances in the consideration of cultural diversity in assessment: A critical review of group classification and measurement invariance testing. Psychological Assessment, 31(12), 1481–1496. https://doi.org/10.1037/pas0000731
32.
HarterS. (1990). Processes underlying adolescent self-concept formation. In From childhood to adolescence: A transitional period? (pp. 205–239). Sage Publications
33.
HodgeB.WrightB.BennettP. (2018). The role of grit in determining engagement and academic outcomes for university students. Research in Higher Education, 59(4), 448–460. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-017-9474-y
34.
HofstedeG. J. (1980). Culture’s consequences. Sage
35.
HuL. t.BentlerP. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 6(1), 1–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118
36.
HuM.-L.WangM.-C.CaiL.ZhuX.-Z.YaoS.-Q. (2012). Development of subjective socioeconomic status scale for Chinese adolescents. Chinese Journal of Clinical Psychology, 20(2), 155–161
37.
JiangW.XiaoZ.LiuY.GuoK.JiangJ.DuX. (2019). Reciprocal relations between grit and academic achievement: A longitudinal study. Learning and Individual Differences, 71, 13–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2019.02.004
38.
LamK. K. L.ZhouM. M. (2022). Grit and academic achievement: A comparative cross-cultural meta-analysis. Journal of Educational Psychology, 114(3), 597–621. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000699
39.
LanX. Y.MoscardinoU. (2019). Direct and interactive effects of perceived teacher-student relationship and grit on student wellbeing among stay-behind early adolescents in urban China. Learning and Individual Differences, 69, 129–137. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2018.12.003
40.
LeysC.KleinO.DominicyY.LeyC. (2018). Detecting multivariate outliers: Use a robust variant of the Mahalanobis distance. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 74, 150–156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2017.09.011
41.
LeysC.LeyC.KleinO.BernardP.LicataL. (2013). Detecting outliers: Do not use standard deviation around the mean, use absolute deviation around the median. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 49(4), 764–766. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2013.03.013
42.
LiJ.ZhaoY.KongF.DuS.YangS.WangS. (2018). Psychometric assessment of the short grit scale among Chinese adolescents. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 36(3), 291–296. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734282916674858
LiuJ.PengP.LuoL. (2020). The relation between family socioeconomic status and academic achievement in China: A meta-analysis. Educational Psychology Review, 32(1), 49–76. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-019-09494-0
45.
LomasT. (2015). Positive cross-cultural psychology: Exploring similarity and difference in constructions and experiences of wellbeing. International Journal of Wellbeing, 5(4), 60–77. https://doi.org/10.5502/ijw.v5i4.437
46.
MarcoulidesK. M.RaykovT. (2019). Evaluation of variance inflation factors in regression models using latent variable modeling methods. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 79(5), 874–882. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164418817803
47.
MarshH. W.HauK.-T.GraysonD. (2005). Goodness of fit evaluation. In Maydeu-OlivaresA.McArdleJ. (Eds.), Contemporary psychometrics (pp. 275–340). Erlbaum
48.
MuenksK.WigfieldA.YangJ. S.OnealC. R. (2017). How true is grit? Assessing its relations to high school and college students’ personality characteristics, self-regulation, engagement, and achievement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 109(5), 599–620. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000153
NimonK. (2010). Regression commonality analysis: Demonstration of an SPSS solution. Multiple Linear Regression Viewpoints, 36(1), 10–17
51.
NimonK.LewisM.KaneR.HaynesR. M. (2008). An R package to compute commonality coefficients in the multiple regression case: An introduction to the package and a practical example. Behavior Research Methods, 40(2), 457–466. https://doi.org/10.3758/BRM.40.2.457
52.
NimonK. F.OswaldF. L. (2013). Understanding the results of multiple linear regression: Beyond standardized regression coefficients. Organizational Research Methods, 16(4), 650–674. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428113493929
53.
OperarioD.AdlerN. E.WilliamsD. R. (2004). Subjective social status: Reliability and predictive utility for global health. Psychology and Health, 19(2), 237–246. https://doi.org/10.1080/08870440310001638098
54.
OriolX.MirandaR.OyanedelJ. C.TorresJ. (2017). The role of self-control and grit in domains of school success in students of primary and secondary school. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 1716. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01716
55.
PostigoÁ.CuestaM.Fernández-AlonsoR.García-CuetoE.MuñizJ. (2021a). Temporal stability of grit and school performance in adolescents: A longitudinal perspective. Psicologia Educativa, 27(1), 77–84. https://doi.org/10.5093/psed2021a4
56.
PostigoÁ.CuestaM.Fernández-AlonsoR.García-CuetoE.MuñizJ. (2021b). Academic grit modulates school performance evolution over time: A latent transition analysis. Revista de Psicodidáctica, 26(2), 87–95. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psicoe.2021.03.001
57.
PostigoÁ.CuestaM.García-CuetoE.Menéndez-AllerÁ.González-NuevoC.MuñizJ. (2021). Grit assessment: Is one dimension enough?Journal of Personality Assessment, 103(6), 786–796. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223891.2020.1848853
58.
PutnickD. L.BornsteinM. H. (2016). Measurement invariance conventions and reporting: The state of the art and future directions for psychological research. Developmental Review, 41, 71–90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2016.06.004
59.
ReeveJ.CheonS. H.JangH. (2020). How and why students make academic progress: Reconceptualizing the student engagement construct to increase its explanatory power. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 62(1), 101899. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101899
60.
SatorraA.BentlerP. M. (1994). Corrections to test statistics and standard errors in covariance structure analysis. In Latent variables analysis: Applications for developmental research (pp. 399–419). Sage Publications, Inc
SchmidtF. T. C.FleckensteinJ.RetelsdorfJ.Eskreis-WinklerL.MöllerJ. (2019). Measuring grit: A German validation and a domain-specific approach to grit. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 35(3), 436–447. https://doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759/a000407
63.
SkinnerE. A. (2016). Engagement and disaffection as central to processes of motivational resilience and development. In ChristensonS.WentzelA.MieleC. (Eds.), Handbook of motivation at school (pp. 145–168). Routledge
64.
SkinnerE. A.FurrerC.MarchandG.KindermannT. (2008). Engagement and disaffection in the classroom: Part of a larger motivational dynamic?Journal of Educational Psychology, 100(4), 765–781. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0012840
65.
SkinnerE. A.PitzerJ. R.SteeleJ. S. (2016). Can student engagement serve as a motivational resource for academic coping, persistence, and learning during late elementary and early middle school?Developmental Psychology, 52(12), 2099–2117. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000232
66.
SteinmayrR.WeidingerA. F.WigfieldA. (2018). Does students’ grit predict their school achievement above and beyond their personality, motivation, and engagement?Contemporary Educational Psychology, 53, 106–122. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2018.02.004
67.
SuhE. M. (2007). Downsides of an overly context-sensitive self: Implications from the culture and subjective well-being research. Journal of Personality, 75(6), 1321–1343. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2007.00477.x
68.
SunZ.PengS.WangJ.YuanY. (2016). Who go ahead in academic competitions? Basedon the research of gender gap in academic performance. Journal of Bejing Normal University (Social Sciences), 255(3), 38–51
69.
TangH.DatuJ. A. D.LiuZ., et al. (2022). The engaged lives of encouraged students: Academic encouragement, grit and academic engagement in Chinese first year undergraduate students. Current Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03057-3
70.
TangX.WangM.-T.ParadaF.Salmela-AroK. (2020). Putting the goal back into grit: Academic goal commitment, grit, and academic achievement. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 50(3), 470–484. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-020-01348-1
71.
TaoV.HongY. Y. (2000). A meaning system approach to Chinese students’ achievement goals. Journal of Psychology in Chinese Societies, 1(2), 13–38
72.
TeuberZ.NussbeckF. W.WildE. (2020). The bright side of grit in burnout-prevention: Exploring grit in the context of demands-resources model among Chinese high school students. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 52(3), 464–476. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-020-01031-3
73.
TyumenevaY.KardanovaE.KuzminaJ. (2019). Grit: Two related but independent constructs instead of one. Evidence from item response theory. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 35(4), 469–478. https://doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759/a000424
74.
VignolesV. L.OweE.BeckerM.SmithP. B.EasterbrookM. J.BrownR.BondM. H. (2016). Beyond the ‘east-west’ dichotomy: Global variation in cultural models of selfhood. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 145(8), 966–1000. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000175
75.
WangC. (2021). The relation among academic grit, school engagement, teacher support and academic achievement in Chinese middle school students. Mental Health Education in Primary and Secondary School, 486(31), 13–17
76.
WernerK. M.MilyavskayaM.KlimoR.LevineS. L. (2019). Examining the unique and combined effects of grit, trait self-control, and conscientiousness in predicting motivation for academic goals: A commonality analysis. Journal of Research in Personality, 81, 168–175. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2019.06.003
77.
WestM. R.KraftM. A.FinnA. S.MartinR. E.DuckworthA. L.GabrieliC. F. O.GabrieliJ. D. E. (2016). Promise and paradox: Measuring students’ non-cognitive skills and the impact of schooling. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 38(1), 148–170. https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373715597298
78.
WongA. E.VallacherR. R. (2018). Reciprocal feedback between self-concept and goal pursuit in daily life. Journal of Personality, 86(3), 543–554. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12334
79.
XieM.KingR. B.LuoY. (2022). Social motivation and deep approaches to learning: A nationwide study among Chinese college students. Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-022-00860-6
80.
XuK. M.Cunha-HarveyA. R.KingR. B.De KoningB. B.PaasF.BaarsM.ZhangJ. J.de GrootR. (2021). A cross-cultural investigation on perseverance, self-regulated learning, motivation, and achievement. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2021.1922270
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
