Examining the unique and combined effects of grit, trait self-control, and conscientiousness in predicting motivation for academic goals: A commonality analysis

• Published in: Journal of research in personality Vol. 81; pp. 168 - 175
• Main Authors: Werner, Kaitlyn M., Milyavskaya, Marina, Klimo, Rebecca, Levine, Shelby L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Inc 01.08.2019
• Subjects: Academic motivation; Commonality analysis; Conscientiousness; Goal pursuit; Grit; Self-regulation; Trait self-control; Conscientiousness; Commonality analysis; Academic motivation; Trait self-control; Grit; Goal pursuit; Self-regulation
• ISSN: 0092-6566; 1095-7251
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jrp.2019.06.003

•Examined the relation between grit and motivation for academic goals.•Commonality analysis was used to examine overlap between self-regulatory traits.•Self-regulatory traits explain 9.9% of variance in autonomous motivation.•50% of this variance was explained by the overlapping components of these traits. The purpose of the present research was to examine the predicative ability of both the unique and combined components of grit, trait self-control, and conscientiousness in the context of academic goal pursuit. Participants (n1 = 163, n2 = 551) were asked to complete assessments of each self-regulatory trait and reported their motivation for an academic goal. Together, grit, trait self-control, and conscientiousness explained 9.9% of the variance in academic goal motivation across both samples. Using commonality analysis, we found that the overlapping components of grit, trait self-control, and conscientiousness accounted for 49.6% of the explained variance (4.9% of the total variance), with the individual components each accounting for less than 20% (2% of the total variance). Implications for research on self-regulatory traits are discussed.