The Evidence on Teaching

Grit and academic achievement: A comparative cross-cultural meta-analysis.

Lam KKL, Zhou M · 2022

grade Bmeta-analysisindependentreplicated
Sample
137 studies, 156 dependent samples, N = 285,331
Population
International; individualist and collectivist cultures compared.
Design
Robust variance estimation with eight moderators tested - culture, grit measure, achievement measure type, publication type, educational level, research design, study quality and sex ratio. Grit is uniformly self-report throughout the corpus.
Key findings
Overall grit-achievement weighted r = .19, perseverance of effort .21, consistency of interest .08. There is no moderation by individualism versus collectivism. After controlling all moderators no significant moderators remain for overall grit or consistency, and the ONE surviving effect is that the perseverance-achievement association is stronger for NONSTANDARDIZED than for standardized achievement measures - the association shrinks when the outcome stops being a teacher's judgement.
Genetic confound
High. A synthesis of observational associations.
Replication notes
A close replication of Crede et al. 2017 at fifteen times the sample size, including the perseverance-over-consistency split.
DOI / URL
10.1037/edu0000699

Effects

OutcomeMetricValueMeasureTimingVsHorizonClass
Grit and academic achievementweighted r0.19mixedcross-sectional and predictivenonenot-applicabledomain-skill
Perseverance of effort versus consistency of interestweighted r0.21 versus 0.08mixedcross-sectionalnonenot-applicabledomain-skill
Measure type moderatordirectionperseverance predicts nonstandardized achievement better than standardized achievementmixedcross-sectionalnonenot-applicabledomain-skill

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