The effect of two aspects of grit on developmental change in high school students' academic performance: Findings from a five-wave longitudinal study over the course of three years

Grit is a personality trait defined as perseverance and passion when working to reach a long-term goal and is comprised of two aspects: consistency of interest and perseverance of effort. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the effect of these two aspects on the developmental changes in the nationwide practice test scores of senior high school students over three years. The sample included 1403 Japanese senior high school students who participated in the nationwide practice exams over three years. We utilized a latent growth curve model to capture the effect of the two aspects of grit on the developmental changes in the test scores. We found that the students with higher perseverance of effort had a higher baseline level of long-term academic performance and increased long-term academic performance over the three years. However, we did not find individual differences in the consistency of interest to be related to the level of the test scores or their amount of change. We could capture the differential effect of the two aspects of grit on developmental change in students' long-term academic outcomes.