The Relationship between Grit and Academic, Military and Physical Performance at the United States Military Academy

Abstract

Perseverance (persistence) is a personality trait that has been historically measured through the presentation of difficult or impossible tasks and then observations made as to how long an individual continues to attempt to solve the problem or complete the task. The determination of perseverance was then made after the attempt but there were few reliable methods to predict the level of perseverance before the effort was given. This study seeks to assess whether perseverance can be discerned during the admissions process and utilizes the recently developed and validated Grit Scale, a 12-question instrument that measures trait-level perseverance and passion for long-term goals. The Grit Scale was given to the United States Military Academy class of 2008 (N= 968) during initial summer training and the graduation outcomes were collected four years later. Controlling for gender and ethnicity, Grit demonstrated a statistically significant relationship with academic achievement, as measured by cumulative grade point average at graduation. In comparison with other traditional admissions predictors (SAT scores and High School Rank), Grit's impact on the variability of grade point averages was again significant, however, not as powerful a predictor as the traditional predictors. Grit was, however, better at predicting higher achievement in the Academy-specific outcomes of military and physical performance scores. Thus, Grit should be considered a complementary predicator of academic achievement with the traditional predictors of SAT scores and high school rank to provide a more detailed profile of admissions candidates.