Grit Scale

General Information on the Measure
Purpose of the measure

The Grit Scale measures the extent to which individuals are able to maintain focus and interest, and persevere in obtaining long-term goals.

Main constructs measured

Intrapersonal competencies

Applicable grade levels

Ages 10 to adult

Publication year for the most recent version 2009
Year originally developed 2007
Related measures
Measure Administration
Respondent

Student

Method of administration

Paper/Pencil, Digital

Number of items

12

Item format

Five-point Likert-type scale

Administration time

Five minutes

Available languages

English, French, German

Fee for use Free and publicly available
Credentials required for administration

None

Scoring
Overall score reporting

An overall grit score is reported.

Subscore reporting

No subscores are reported.

Scoring procedures

The Grit Scale is self-scored (paper/pencil version) or scored automatically (online version).

Interpretive information

Scores range from 1 (not at all gritty) to 5 (extremely gritty). Authors advise against using the measure to assess within-individual changes (pre-post administrations) or in high-stakes environments (such as hiring or evaluation).

Evidence of Technical Quality
Populations for which technical quality evidence has been collected

Evidence is based on approximately 1,500 adult users who responded to an invitation on the Authentic Happiness website (Duckworth et al., 2007).

Reliability evidence

Internal consistency estimates (Cronbach's alpha) for the Grit Scale were 0.85 (Duckworth et al., 2007).

Validity evidence
Evidence based on content
Items were developed based on existing theoretical and empirical literature on grit and persistence and informed by expert review (Duckworth et al., 2007).
Evidence based on response processes
No information available in the references reviewed.
Evidence based on internal structure
Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis techniques were used to substantiate a second-order factor model with two specific factors (consistency of interests and perseverance of effort) and a general grit factor (Duckworth et al., 2007; Duckworth & Quinn, 2009).
Evidence based on relations with other variables
The overall grit score accounted for an average of 4% of the variance in multiple measures of individual success, including educational attainment, academic achievement, and school retention. The overall grit score was not positively related with IQ but strongly related to a measure of conscientiousness as captured by a Big Five personality inventory (Duckworth et al., 2007).
Locating the Measure
Obtaining a copy of the measure angeladuckworth.com
References

Duckworth, A.L, & Quinn, P.D. "Development and validation of the Short Grit Scale (Grit-S)," Journal of Personality Assessment, Vol. 91, 2009, pp. 166–174.

Duckworth, A.L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M.D., & Kelly, D.R. "Grit: Perseverance and passion for long-term goal," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 9, 2007, pp. 1087–1101.

Notes

Measure summary updated October 3, 2018.