Grit and Academic Persistence

Last Updated May 27, 2026

Academic persistence is the capacity to remain engaged in learning over time: continuing through difficult coursework, disappointing grades, slow progress, uncertainty, distraction, and competing demands. Grit is closely related because it describes perseverance and passion for long-term goals. In school, those long-term goals may include completing a course, graduating, entering a profession, mastering a discipline, or becoming the kind of person who can contribute through knowledge and skill.

But academic persistence is not simply a private trait inside the student. It is shaped by instruction, belonging, feedback, family responsibilities, school quality, financial pressure, health, disability accommodation, language access, racial and class inequality, teacher expectations, peer culture, and institutional trust. A student may be gritty and still struggle when the learning environment is confusing, unsupported, unsafe, or unjust.

This article examines grit and academic persistence as a developmental system. It explains how perseverance of effort, long-term goals, self-control, motivation, feedback, belonging, and academic identity interact. It also shows why grit language must be used carefully. The goal is not to tell students to endure poor conditions. The goal is to understand how sustained effort becomes possible when students have meaningful goals, strong instruction, supportive relationships, recovery after setbacks, and institutions worthy of their commitment.

Overview

Academic persistence is one of the clearest places to study grit because education unfolds over time. Students must continue learning across assignments, exams, courses, semesters, credentials, and transitions. They must keep working when tasks are hard, feedback is disappointing, progress is slow, and the future is uncertain.

Grit may support academic persistence by helping students return to difficult work after setbacks. Perseverance of effort is especially relevant because school requires repeated engagement: studying, practicing, revising, asking for help, using feedback, and completing tasks even when motivation fluctuates.

Yet academic persistence should never be reduced to grit alone. A student’s ability to persist depends on whether school feels meaningful, whether instruction is clear, whether feedback is useful, whether teachers believe in the student, whether the student belongs, whether basic needs are met, and whether the institution provides a fair path forward.

The central question is therefore not simply “Does the student have grit?” The better question is: “What personal, instructional, relational, and institutional conditions make sustained learning possible?”

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What academic persistence means

Academic persistence means continued engagement with learning despite difficulty. It includes staying enrolled, completing assignments, attending classes, studying over time, asking for help, revising work, retaking difficult material, recovering after poor performance, and continuing toward meaningful educational goals.

Persistence is not the same as perfection. Students who persist may struggle, fail, pause, change strategies, need accommodations, repeat courses, transfer institutions, or revise goals. Persistence is best understood as continued constructive engagement, not uninterrupted success.

Academic persistence also differs by level. A student may persist through a single assignment, a difficult course, a major, a degree program, or a professional pathway. The longer the horizon, the more persistence depends on purpose, support, identity, feedback, and institutional conditions.

This distinction matters because schools often measure persistence through visible outcomes such as attendance, grades, credits, retention, or completion. Those outcomes matter, but they do not fully capture the human process of continuing to learn under pressure.

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How grit appears in school

In school, grit appears when students keep working toward meaningful academic goals despite difficulty. A gritty student may continue studying after a disappointing grade, revise an essay multiple times, practice difficult material, seek help instead of withdrawing, or remain committed to a long-term educational pathway despite setbacks.

Grit does not mean a student enjoys every assignment. Academic work often includes boredom, repetition, confusion, and delayed reward. Grit helps students stay connected to the larger goal when the immediate task feels unrewarding.

However, grit should not be confused with silent endurance. A student who asks for help, uses accommodations, changes study methods, or revises a plan may be showing adaptive persistence. Academic grit is not stoicism. It is sustained, strategic engagement with learning.

The most useful view treats grit as one part of a learning ecology. It interacts with instruction, feedback, self-control, motivation, relationships, belonging, and access to support.

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Perseverance of effort in academic work

Perseverance of effort is the grit facet most directly connected to academic persistence. It describes continued work through difficulty. In school, this can mean finishing reading, practicing problems, revising writing, preparing for exams, completing projects, and returning to material that initially feels confusing.

Perseverance matters because learning often requires repeated effort before understanding becomes stable. Students may need to encounter a concept many times, make errors, receive feedback, and try again. Academic growth is rarely linear.

Yet perseverance must be intelligent. A student who rereads notes for hours without testing understanding may be working hard but not learning efficiently. A student who repeats the same failed study method may need feedback, not more pressure. Perseverance should be paired with metacognition: noticing what works, what does not, and what needs to change.

The strongest academic perseverance is therefore strategic. It combines effort with feedback, reflection, and adaptation.

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Consistency of interests and educational pathways

Consistency of interests is more complicated in education. Students are developing. They explore fields, revise identities, discover new strengths, encounter barriers, and learn what different pathways actually require. Changing interests may reflect healthy growth rather than weak grit.

Still, long-term academic persistence often benefits from some continuity of direction. A student who remains connected to a broad purpose can organize effort more effectively. Even if the exact major or career changes, a stable higher-level aim can sustain persistence.

For example, a student may shift from biology to public health while remaining committed to improving human well-being. Another may move from engineering to environmental science while remaining committed to climate solutions. Another may leave a pre-law path but stay committed to justice through policy, education, or organizing.

Academic consistency should therefore be interpreted at the right level. The question is not whether students never change plans. The question is whether their learning remains connected to a meaningful and increasingly coherent direction.

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Setbacks, grades, and recovery

Academic setbacks are central to persistence. A poor grade, failed exam, rejected application, difficult comment, lost scholarship, or failed prerequisite can threaten motivation and identity. Students may interpret setbacks as evidence that they do not belong or are not capable.

Grit can help students recover, but recovery is not just willpower. Students need feedback that explains what happened, guidance on what to change, emotional support, and realistic pathways for improvement. Without these supports, a setback can become a turning point toward withdrawal.

Grades are especially powerful because they can feel like judgments of ability or worth. A developmental learning culture treats grades as information, not final identity. Students persist better when they can translate feedback into action.

The healthiest academic response to setback is reflective revision: understand the error, seek support, change the strategy, recover emotionally, and return to the larger goal.

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Self-control and daily academic behavior

Academic persistence depends on daily behavior. Students must manage attention, begin tasks, resist distractions, regulate emotions, attend class, submit work, sleep enough, and prepare over time. These behaviors often involve self-control.

Self-control and grit are related but separable. Self-control helps students act in the present: study now instead of scrolling, ask for help instead of avoiding, revise the paragraph instead of quitting. Grit helps students remain committed to the long-term academic goal across semesters or years.

A student can have a meaningful long-term goal but struggle with daily self-control. In that case, the problem may not be lack of grit. The student may need environmental design, routines, executive-function supports, reduced distraction, sleep, counseling, or structured accountability.

Good academic systems reduce unnecessary self-control burden. They make expectations clear, break work into stages, provide reminders, normalize help-seeking, and create environments where focused effort is possible.

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Motivation, purpose, and academic identity

Academic persistence strengthens when students understand why learning matters. Motivation may begin with interest, grades, family hopes, scholarships, career goals, belonging, curiosity, moral purpose, or the desire for a better future. Over time, persistence becomes more stable when students connect academic work to identity and purpose.

Purpose helps students interpret difficulty. A challenging chemistry course may feel different when connected to medicine, environmental science, or public health. A demanding writing assignment may feel different when connected to civic voice, research, or professional communication. Purpose does not remove difficulty, but it gives difficulty meaning.

Academic identity also matters. Students persist when they can imagine themselves as mathematicians, readers, scientists, historians, engineers, artists, teachers, clinicians, writers, or public thinkers. Identity is not merely private confidence. It is shaped by recognition, representation, mentorship, curriculum, and institutional culture.

Students are more likely to persist when they can say: this work is hard, but it belongs to who I am becoming.

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Belonging, relationships, and institutional trust

Belonging is central to academic persistence. Students are more likely to continue when they feel seen, respected, and legitimately present in the learning community. They are less likely to persist when they feel invisible, stereotyped, isolated, humiliated, or treated as if their success is unexpected.

Relationships matter because academic difficulty is easier to survive when students have people who interpret setbacks developmentally. A mentor, teacher, advisor, peer group, or family member can help a student understand that struggle is not proof of unworthiness.

Institutional trust also matters. Students persist when they believe the institution is fair enough, supportive enough, and meaningful enough to deserve continued effort. If students repeatedly encounter indifference, bureaucracy, discrimination, or unclear pathways, persistence becomes harder.

Belonging is not a soft add-on to grit. It is part of the condition under which grit can be expressed.

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Instruction, feedback, and practice quality

Academic persistence becomes productive when students know how to improve. Effort without feedback can become frustration. Students may study longer, write more, or repeat assignments without understanding what needs to change. Good instruction and feedback turn persistence into learning.

Feedback should be specific, actionable, timely, and tied to clear standards. It should help students answer: What am I trying to learn? Where am I now? What should I do next? Feedback that merely labels performance without guiding improvement can weaken persistence.

Practice quality also matters. Students need learning activities that target understanding: retrieval practice, spaced review, error analysis, worked examples, writing revision, problem solving, discussion, laboratory correction, and application. Time-on-task matters less when the task is poorly designed.

Schools that value persistence should therefore design better practice environments. Academic grit should be supported by teaching that makes effort effective.

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Retention, completion, and staying power

Academic persistence is often measured through retention and completion: staying in school, remaining in a program, earning credits, completing a degree, or finishing a credential. These outcomes matter because educational pathways often require sustained participation before long-term benefits appear.

Grit may support retention by helping students continue after predictable difficulties: poor grades, demanding courses, financial stress, isolation, unclear major fit, or slow progress. But retention should not be interpreted as a simple test of character.

Students leave programs for many reasons. Some are pushed out by cost, bureaucracy, racism, weak advising, disability inaccessibility, family obligations, health crises, or hostile climates. Some leave because the path no longer fits. Some stop out temporarily and later return. Some transfer to better environments.

Completion is important, but humane institutions ask what students need to complete with dignity, learning, and well-being—not merely how to make them endure.

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Inequality, opportunity, and persistence burdens

Students do not persist under equal conditions. Some have quiet study space, stable housing, strong prior preparation, family financial support, mentors, healthcare, technology, and flexible time. Others work long hours, care for family, commute long distances, face food insecurity, lack reliable internet, or navigate discrimination and underfunded schools.

This means grit can become a burdened concept. If institutions praise grit while ignoring unequal conditions, they risk telling students with fewer resources that their struggles reflect insufficient character. That is not a serious account of academic persistence.

Opportunity shapes whether effort can become progress. A student who studies hard in a poorly taught course may not gain the same benefit as a student with excellent instruction. A student who works two jobs may not have the same time for deliberate practice. A student facing stereotype threat may spend emotional energy simply managing belonging uncertainty.

A just approach to grit asks how schools can reduce unnecessary persistence burdens and create conditions where effort has a fair chance to matter.

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Academic burnout and overpersistence

Academic persistence can become unhealthy when students continue under chronic overload without recovery. Burnout may appear as exhaustion, cynicism, loss of meaning, reduced efficacy, emotional numbness, or avoidance. A burned-out student may still care deeply but no longer have the energy to continue.

Grit language can make burnout worse if students interpret rest as weakness. A student may keep pushing because they believe persistence requires constant sacrifice. This is especially dangerous in competitive academic cultures where overwork is normalized.

Healthy persistence includes recovery. Sleep, rest, relationships, movement, food, counseling, spiritual life, creative life, and unstructured time are not distractions from achievement. They protect the conditions under which learning can continue.

Overpersistence can also appear when a student remains in a path that is harmful, coerced, or misaligned. Adaptive quitting or changing direction may be the wiser form of long-term agency.

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Measurement and interpretation

Grit is often measured through self-report scales that assess perseverance of effort and consistency of interests. Academic persistence may be measured through grades, attendance, credit completion, retention, graduation, or continued enrollment. Each measure captures part of the picture, but none captures the whole student.

Self-report grit measures can be useful in research, but they are limited. Students may answer differently depending on mood, stress, culture, self-confidence, social desirability, or whether they trust the institution administering the measure. Scores should not be treated as fixed character judgments.

Persistence outcomes also require caution. A student who leaves an institution may not lack grit. They may be transferring, protecting health, responding to cost, escaping harm, supporting family, or choosing a better path. A student who stays may be persistent, but may also be trapped by pressure or sunk cost.

Measurement should therefore be developmental and contextual. The goal is not to label students. The goal is to understand what support, instruction, feedback, belonging, and resources would help them continue learning well.

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A mathematical lens on academic persistence

A simple model can represent academic persistence as a function of grit, self-control, belonging, instruction, support, and burnout:

A progress model can represent learning over time:

Grit may influence persistence partly through study effort and help-seeking:

A contextual model can represent opportunity:

The mathematical lesson is that grit belongs in the model, but academic persistence should never be modeled as grit alone.

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Responsible use in schools and universities

Responsible use of grit in education begins by refusing deficit labeling. A student who struggles with persistence should not be reduced to weak character. The first questions should be developmental and institutional: What is the student trying to do? Where is the learning breakdown? What feedback has been provided? Does the student feel they belong? Are there financial, health, family, language, disability, or discrimination-related barriers?

Grit can be useful when it supports reflection, goal clarification, recovery after setbacks, and sustained effort. It becomes harmful when used to blame students for conditions they did not create.

Schools and universities should treat academic persistence as a shared responsibility. Students contribute effort, attention, and help-seeking. Teachers contribute clear instruction and feedback. Advisors contribute pathway guidance. Institutions contribute affordability, accessibility, belonging, and fair systems.

The goal is not to produce students who can endure anything. The goal is to build learning environments where persistence is meaningful, supported, adaptive, and humane.

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Python workflow: modeling grit and academic persistence

The following Python workflow uses synthetic data to model academic persistence as a function of grit, self-control, belonging, instructional quality, prior preparation, social support, financial stress, burnout, and academic progress. It compares a grit-only model with a broader contextual model.

# Python workflow: Grit and academic persistence
# Synthetic data for article support and research-method demonstration only.
# Do not use this workflow to evaluate, rank, admit, discipline, or assess real students.

import numpy as np
import pandas as pd
import statsmodels.api as sm

rng = np.random.default_rng(42)
n = 1000

# Grit facets
perseverance_effort = rng.normal(0, 1, n)
consistency_interests = rng.normal(0, 1, n)
grit = 0.60 * perseverance_effort + 0.40 * consistency_interests

# Academic and developmental variables
self_control = rng.normal(0, 1, n)
prior_preparation = rng.normal(0, 1, n)
instructional_quality = rng.normal(0, 1, n)
feedback_quality = rng.normal(0, 1, n)
belonging = rng.normal(0, 1, n)
social_support = rng.normal(0, 1, n)
financial_stress = rng.normal(0, 1, n)
health_stability = rng.normal(0, 1, n)

# Study effort is shaped by grit, self-control, motivation, and strain
study_effort = (
    0.30 * grit
    + 0.26 * self_control
    + 0.18 * belonging
    + 0.16 * social_support
    - 0.18 * financial_stress
    + rng.normal(0, 1, n)
)

# Burnout increases with strain and decreases with support and health stability
burnout = (
    0.22 * financial_stress
    + 0.18 * study_effort
    - 0.22 * social_support
    - 0.20 * health_stability
    - 0.16 * belonging
    + rng.normal(0, 1, n)
)

# Academic progress
academic_progress = (
    0.18 * grit
    + 0.24 * study_effort
    + 0.26 * prior_preparation
    + 0.20 * instructional_quality
    + 0.18 * feedback_quality
    + 0.18 * belonging
    + 0.14 * social_support
    - 0.18 * burnout
    + rng.normal(0, 1, n)
)

# Persistence intention / likelihood proxy
academic_persistence = (
    0.20 * grit
    + 0.18 * self_control
    + 0.24 * academic_progress
    + 0.22 * belonging
    + 0.18 * social_support
    - 0.20 * financial_stress
    - 0.18 * burnout
    + rng.normal(0, 1, n)
)

df = pd.DataFrame({
    "perseverance_effort": perseverance_effort,
    "consistency_interests": consistency_interests,
    "grit": grit,
    "self_control": self_control,
    "prior_preparation": prior_preparation,
    "instructional_quality": instructional_quality,
    "feedback_quality": feedback_quality,
    "belonging": belonging,
    "social_support": social_support,
    "financial_stress": financial_stress,
    "health_stability": health_stability,
    "study_effort": study_effort,
    "burnout": burnout,
    "academic_progress": academic_progress,
    "academic_persistence": academic_persistence
})

print("Correlation matrix:")
print(df[[
    "grit",
    "self_control",
    "prior_preparation",
    "instructional_quality",
    "feedback_quality",
    "belonging",
    "social_support",
    "financial_stress",
    "burnout",
    "academic_progress",
    "academic_persistence"
]].corr().round(3))

# Model 1: grit only
model_grit_only = sm.OLS(
    df["academic_persistence"],
    sm.add_constant(df[["grit"]])
).fit()

# Model 2: student-regulation model
model_regulation = sm.OLS(
    df["academic_persistence"],
    sm.add_constant(df[[
        "grit",
        "self_control",
        "study_effort",
        "academic_progress"
    ]])
).fit()

# Model 3: contextual model
model_contextual = sm.OLS(
    df["academic_persistence"],
    sm.add_constant(df[[
        "grit",
        "self_control",
        "prior_preparation",
        "instructional_quality",
        "feedback_quality",
        "belonging",
        "social_support",
        "financial_stress",
        "health_stability",
        "study_effort",
        "burnout",
        "academic_progress"
    ]])
).fit()

comparison = pd.DataFrame({
    "model": [
        "grit_only",
        "grit_self_control_study_progress",
        "contextual_persistence_model"
    ],
    "r_squared": [
        model_grit_only.rsquared,
        model_regulation.rsquared,
        model_contextual.rsquared
    ],
    "adjusted_r_squared": [
        model_grit_only.rsquared_adj,
        model_regulation.rsquared_adj,
        model_contextual.rsquared_adj
    ]
})

print("\nModel comparison:")
print(comparison.round(4))

print("\nContextual model coefficients:")
print(model_contextual.params.round(4))

print("\nInterpretation:")
print(
    "Grit may contribute to academic persistence, but persistence is better modeled "
    "as a system involving self-control, prior preparation, instructional quality, "
    "feedback, belonging, support, financial stress, health, burnout, study effort, "
    "and academic progress."
)

This workflow demonstrates why a grit-only model is incomplete. Academic persistence depends on student effort, but also on the learning environment, belonging, support, feedback, and strain.

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R workflow: persistence, belonging, support, and academic progress

The following R workflow uses synthetic data to compare student profiles across grit and belonging, then models academic persistence using individual, instructional, and contextual variables. It is for demonstration only.

# R workflow: Grit and academic persistence
# Synthetic data for article support and research-method demonstration only.
# Do not use this workflow to evaluate, rank, admit, discipline, or assess real students.

set.seed(42)

n <- 1000

# Grit facets
perseverance_effort <- rnorm(n)
consistency_interests <- rnorm(n)
grit <- 0.60 * perseverance_effort + 0.40 * consistency_interests

# Academic and developmental variables
self_control <- rnorm(n)
prior_preparation <- rnorm(n)
instructional_quality <- rnorm(n)
feedback_quality <- rnorm(n)
belonging <- rnorm(n)
social_support <- rnorm(n)
financial_stress <- rnorm(n)
health_stability <- rnorm(n)

study_effort <- (
  0.30 * grit +
  0.26 * self_control +
  0.18 * belonging +
  0.16 * social_support -
  0.18 * financial_stress +
  rnorm(n)
)

burnout <- (
  0.22 * financial_stress +
  0.18 * study_effort -
  0.22 * social_support -
  0.20 * health_stability -
  0.16 * belonging +
  rnorm(n)
)

academic_progress <- (
  0.18 * grit +
  0.24 * study_effort +
  0.26 * prior_preparation +
  0.20 * instructional_quality +
  0.18 * feedback_quality +
  0.18 * belonging +
  0.14 * social_support -
  0.18 * burnout +
  rnorm(n)
)

academic_persistence <- (
  0.20 * grit +
  0.18 * self_control +
  0.24 * academic_progress +
  0.22 * belonging +
  0.18 * social_support -
  0.20 * financial_stress -
  0.18 * burnout +
  rnorm(n)
)

df <- data.frame(
  perseverance_effort,
  consistency_interests,
  grit,
  self_control,
  prior_preparation,
  instructional_quality,
  feedback_quality,
  belonging,
  social_support,
  financial_stress,
  health_stability,
  study_effort,
  burnout,
  academic_progress,
  academic_persistence
)

# Broad profile groups using median splits.
# These are for demonstration only, not student diagnosis.
grit_median <- median(df$grit)
belonging_median <- median(df$belonging)

df$profile <- ifelse( df$grit >= grit_median & df$belonging >= belonging_median,
  "high_grit_high_belonging",
  ifelse(
    df$grit >= grit_median & df$belonging < belonging_median,
    "high_grit_low_belonging",
    ifelse(
      df$grit < grit_median & df$belonging >= belonging_median,
      "low_grit_high_belonging",
      "low_grit_low_belonging"
    )
  )
)

profile_summary <- aggregate(
  cbind(
    academic_persistence,
    academic_progress,
    grit,
    belonging,
    social_support,
    financial_stress,
    burnout
  ) ~ profile,
  data = df,
  FUN = mean
)

print(round(profile_summary, 3))

print(round(cor(df[, c(
  "grit",
  "self_control",
  "prior_preparation",
  "instructional_quality",
  "feedback_quality",
  "belonging",
  "social_support",
  "financial_stress",
  "burnout",
  "academic_progress",
  "academic_persistence"
)]), 3))

# Model 1: grit only
model_grit_only <- lm(academic_persistence ~ grit, data = df)

# Model 2: student regulation model
model_regulation <- lm(
  academic_persistence ~ grit + self_control + study_effort + academic_progress,
  data = df
)

# Model 3: contextual persistence model
model_contextual <- lm(
  academic_persistence ~ grit + self_control + prior_preparation +
    instructional_quality + feedback_quality + belonging + social_support +
    financial_stress + health_stability + study_effort + burnout +
    academic_progress,
  data = df
)

comparison <- data.frame(
  model = c(
    "grit_only",
    "grit_self_control_study_progress",
    "contextual_persistence_model"
  ),
  r_squared = c(
    summary(model_grit_only)$r.squared,
    summary(model_regulation)$r.squared,
    summary(model_contextual)$r.squared
  ),
  adjusted_r_squared = c(
    summary(model_grit_only)$adj.r.squared,
    summary(model_regulation)$adj.r.squared,
    summary(model_contextual)$adj.r.squared
  )
)

print(round(comparison, 4))
print(round(summary(model_contextual)$coefficients, 4))

cat("
Interpretation:
This synthetic workflow shows why academic persistence should not be reduced
to grit alone. Persistence depends on student effort and self-control, but also
on prior preparation, instructional quality, feedback, belonging, support,
financial stress, health stability, burnout, and academic progress.
")

This workflow reinforces the article’s central argument: academic persistence is a shared developmental outcome, not simply an individual character trait.

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GitHub Repository

The companion GitHub repository provides a reproducible research-code structure for the Grit knowledge series, including article-specific workflows, synthetic data examples, documentation, and multi-language modeling assets.

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Conclusion

Grit can help explain academic persistence, but it should never be the whole explanation. Students persist when they can sustain effort toward meaningful goals, recover after setbacks, regulate daily behavior, use feedback, and remain connected to a larger academic purpose. Perseverance matters.

But students do not persist in a vacuum. They persist inside classrooms, families, institutions, economies, and histories. Instructional quality, belonging, mentorship, financial stability, health, accessibility, prior preparation, discrimination, and institutional trust all shape whether effort can become learning.

The strongest account of grit and academic persistence is therefore developmental and ethical. It recognizes student agency without turning persistence into blame. It values effort while asking whether schools provide the conditions under which effort can succeed. It supports recovery instead of glorifying burnout. It treats changing direction as something to understand, not automatically condemn.

Academic persistence is not simply the refusal to quit. It is sustained, supported, feedback-guided engagement with learning over time. Grit can help students continue, but humane education must make that continued effort meaningful, effective, and fair.

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Related articles

• What Is Grit?
• Angela Duckworth and the Modern Science of Grit
• Perseverance and Passion for Long-Term Goals
• Grit in Positive Psychology
• The Original Grit Scale and What It Measures
• The Short Grit Scale and the Problem of Measurement
• Perseverance of Effort Versus Consistency of Interests
• What the Meta-Analyses Say About Grit
• Grit and Long-Term Achievement
• Grit, Motivation, and Goal Hierarchies

Further reading

• Duckworth, A.L. (2016) Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. New York: Scribner.
• Farrington, C.A., Roderick, M., Allensworth, E., Nagaoka, J., Keyes, T.S., Johnson, D.W. and Beechum, N.O. (2012) Teaching Adolescents to Become Learners: The Role of Noncognitive Factors in Shaping School Performance. Chicago: University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research.
• Nagaoka, J., Farrington, C.A., Ehrlich, S.B. and Heath, R.D. (2015) Foundations for Young Adult Success: A Developmental Framework. Chicago: University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research. Available at: https://consortium.uchicago.edu/publications/foundations-young-adult-success-developmental-framework
• National Research Council (2012) Education for Life and Work: Developing Transferable Knowledge and Skills in the 21st Century. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. Available at: https://www.nationalacademies.org/publications/13398/education-for-life-and-work-developing-transferable-knowledge-and-skills-in-the-21st-century
• Ryan, R.M. and Deci, E.L. (2017) Self-Determination Theory: Basic Psychological Needs in Motivation, Development, and Wellness. New York: Guilford Press.
• Tinto, V. (2012) Completing College: Rethinking Institutional Action. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

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References

• Clark, K.N. and Malecki, C.K. (2019) ‘Academic grit scale: Psychometric properties and associations with achievement and life satisfaction’, Journal of School Psychology, 72, pp. 49–66. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2018.12.001
• Credé, M., Tynan, M.C. and Harms, P.D. (2017) ‘Much ado about grit: A meta-analytic synthesis of the grit literature’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 113(3), pp. 492–511. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000102
• Duckworth, A.L. and Gross, J.J. (2014) ‘Self-control and grit: Related but separable determinants of success’, Current Directions in Psychological Science, 23(5), pp. 319–325. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721414541462
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