| dc.description.abstract | Grit is a relatively new construct defined as passion and perseverance for long-term goals. It has been presented as a predictor of academic and vocational success over and above previously established personality constructs like conscientiousness. In most studies up until now, grit has only been compared to short inventories of conscientiousness that merely capture the overarching trait. This study aims to examine the difference between using a short, trait-level inventory of conscientiousness and a more comprehensive, facet-level inventory of conscientiousness as a control for grit. In a Norwegian undergraduate student sample (N = 1394), we used the Big Five Inventory (BFI), the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R), and the two standard measures of grit. The dependent variable was academic performance, represented by university grade and high school grade. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed that the Norwegian translation of the Short Grit Scale (Grit-S) had superior model fit over the Norwegian translation of the Original Grit Scale (Grit-O), and the Short Grit Scale was thus used in all subsequent analyses. Grit exhibited strong correlations with conscientiousness, and particularly the facets self-discipline and achievement striving. Regression analyses showed that the type of inventory used to measure conscientiousness made a difference. When a short, traitlevel inventory (BFI) was used, both grit and conscientiousness only added small or minuscule increments in explained variance controlling for each other (ΔR2 between .006 and .013). When a longer, facet-level inventory (NEO PI-R) was used, grit could not explain any additional variance in university grade and only minuscule amounts of additional variance in high school grade (ΔR2 = .007). Facets of conscientiousness, on the other hand, added moderate amounts of incremental variance to both university and high school grades when controlling for grit (ΔR2 = .043 and ΔR2 = .029, respectively). Due to the modest amounts of total explained variance in academic performance, facets of conscientiousness increased the amount of variance explained by 54% for university grade and 16% for high school grade, as opposed to grit with 0% and 4% respectively. The discussion focuses on the importance of taking the multifaceted nature of conscientiousness into account when establishing the incremental predictive validity of grit. | nb_NO |
