Connectedness and Perseverance: Examining Grit’s Relation to Age, Academic Performance and Interest, and Adult Attachment

Abstract

The individual with grit is one who engages in deliberate practice in effortful perseverance toward long-term goals, despite experiencing difficulty or struggle. We investigated how age, grade point average (GPA), college discipline, and adult attachment dimensions (close, depend, and anxiety) relate to grit. Grit, a trait-level characteristic defined as perseverance and passion for long-term goals, has been found to predict successful outcomes, including achievement and high performance, above and beyond talent. We recruited 797 participants through a university listserv to complete an anonymous online survey. Although studies have found gender and age variably relate to grit, we found gender had no significant relationship and age had a small but significant positive relationship with grit. Age, GPA, college discipline, and adult attachment were significant predictors of grit, with close and anxiety attachment dimensions having the largest effect. Although grit may not be inherent to a college discipline, this study joins others in finding that some college disciplines have individuals with higher levels of grit than other disciplines.