The Influence of Chronotype and Grit on Lifestyle and Physical Activity

Abstract

Background: The chronotype of a person refers to an individual's natural sleep-wake cycle and whether that individual prefers morning or evening activities, and grit is an individual's perseverance and passion for long-term goals.Aim: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between grit, chronotype, physical activity, and leading a healthy lifestyle in college-age students.Methods: Health and fitness data (i.e., chronotype, grit, lifestyle assessment score, and daily steps) from 431 first-semester university students at a private college were collected and analyzed. Results: This study found that grit and chronotype both have significant correlations with living a healthy lifestyle and with physical activity. Grit more accurately predicts a person's lifestyle (β = -13.712, r = 0.39, p < 0.0001) while chronotype more accurately predicts the physical activity, or steps, of a person (β = 66.48, r = .19, p = .0001). Chronotype can also accurately predict the grit of a person (r = .25, p < .0001), and it was found that morning people tend to have more grit.Conclusions: This study concluded that grit, chronotype, steps, and a healthy lifestyle are all significantly correlated with each other. Knowing the relationship between endogenous chronotype, grit, and living a physically active and healthy lifestyle can help inform policy decisions related to the goal of strengthening an institution's inclusive and healthy academic community.

Associations of socioeconomic status, parenting style, and grit with health behaviors in children using data from the Panel Study on Korean Children (PSKC)

“…A higher level of grit was related to a higher number of physical activity days per week among children. Our results are similar to those of a study by Allee et al [29], in which a higher level of grit among children was associated with a higher level of physical activity. According to a previous study [7], family culture and parental policies on physical activity can substantially promote healthy physical activity in children and adolescents.…”

University-wide chronotyping shows late-type students have lower grades, shorter sleep, poorer well-being, lower self-regulation, and more absenteeism

“…Therefore, poorer self-regulation skills in late-type students may contribute to late bedtimes and short nocturnal sleep on school nights. In contrast to previous studies (21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29), chronotype was not associated with self-control, intrinsic motivation, achievement learning goals, conscientiousness, and grit. However, earlier work defined chronotype based on diurnal preference (i.e.…”

“…The survey comprised about 20 instruments/scales for assessing non-cognitive constructs that are relevant for students' learning. We limited our analysis to constructs that have been shown to associate with students' morningness/eveningness preference (19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29), including self-regulation, self-control, intrinsic motivation, achievement learning goals, conscientiousness, and grit (Supplementary Methods). The survey was offered to all students who enrolled in the first semester of the 2018/19 academic year, and it was completed prior to the start of classes in August, 2018.…”

“…Later chronotype is also associated with poorer selfrated health (13,14), sleep problems (6,15), mood disturbances and psychological disorders (16,17), and depression symptoms (18), all of which could impact students' performance at school. Psychological correlates of learning are also lower in students with later chronotype, including self-regulation (19,20), self-control (21,22), intrinsic motivation (23,24), learning goals (25,26), conscientiousness (24,27,28), and grit (29). Lastly, late-type students may have lower class attendance rates, e.g.…”

Effects of Interrupted Daily Routine Due to COVID-19 on Circadian Chronotype and Leisure Time Physical Activity

“…This suggests that although exercise times were not statistically different in the present study, exercise frequency and chronotypes may have a relationship such that a greater change in physical activity corresponds to a greater change in chronotype score. This is in line with previous research that indicates correlations between amount of physical activity and chronotypes [ 21 , 22 ]. For example, one study reported associations between ET scores and low leisure time physical activity [ 21 ].…”