Predicting Educational Attainment: Does Grit Compensate for Low Levels of Cognitive Ability?

Abstract

This study examined the role of cognitive ability in moderating grit's predictive effect on educational outcomes. Using a large, representative sample of young adults, we estimated multivariate regression models for the probability of graduating from high school, enrolling in college, earning any college degree, and earning a college degree. For each outcome, the effect of grit (and, alternatively, consistency of interest and perseverance of effort) was allowed to differ for students in each quartile of the cognitive ability distribution. We found that the predicted effect of grit-which is dominated by the effect of perseverance-is almost entirely concentrated among students at both the high and low ends of the cognitive ability distribution. We also found that grit's predictive power increases with each successive educational outcome for high-ability students, but not for low-ability students. The findings are consistent with the notion that highability students adopt self-regulated learning processes that exploit their grit, especially as educational tasks become more challenging. For low-ability students, it appears that grit plays a compensatory role. Relatively few low-ability students attain each educational outcome, but those who do appear to benefit from the effective substitution of grit for cognitive ability.

Putting the Goal Back into Grit: Academic Goal Commitment, Grit, and Academic Achievement

“…Importantly, some studies have shown that the grit-achievement association could be enhanced in some circumstances, thereby positioning the concept as a potential point of intervention. One study found that the grit effect was more significant at the two ends of the cognitive ability continuum in a nationally representative adult sample (Light and Nencka 2019 ). For adults with low cognitive ability, those with high levels of grit had high education attainments; however, this same effect was not found among adults with average cognitive ability.…”

Putting the goal back into grit: Academic goal commitment, grit and academic achievement

“…Importantly, some studies have shown that the grit-achievement association could be enhanced in some circumstances, thereby positioning the concept as a potential point of intervention. One study found that the grit effect was more significant at the two ends of the cognitive ability continuum in a nationally representative adult sample (Light & Nencka, 2019). For adults with low cognitive ability, those with high levels of grit had high education attainments; however, this same effect was not found among adults with average cognitive ability.…”

The (Unequal) Interplay Between Cognitive and Noncognitive Skills in Early Educational Attainment

“…Beyond being correlated, cognitive and noncognitive skills may also interact by being complements or substitutes in the production function of learning and educational outcomes (Light & Nencka, 2019). We can imagine four ideal types of students with different given combinations of cognitive and noncognitive skills and educational returns, as illustrated in Table 1.…”

“…Among pupils with low cognitive skills, exerting effort might particularly pay off, substituting their lack of ability to progress in the educational system— skill substitution (e.g., not smart but hardworking ). Whether and how the marginal effects (or the returns) of noncognitive skills on educational outcomes differ across the distribution of cognitive skills is an open empirical question (Light & Nencka, 2019).…”

“…On the contrary, pupils with low cognitive skills may substitute or compensate for it by taking advantage of high (returns to) effort. Up to now, there is only limited research on the interplay between cognitive and noncognitive skills in explaining educational outcomes (Light & Nencka, 2019).…”