The Significance of Grit from Social Support and Health Determinants

Purpose:  The purpose of this study is to investigate how social support and health- both physical, mental, and general- affect one’s grit.

Introduction: One way to gage a low-income job seeker’s economic success is by assessing their non-cognitive skills. These skills are important in determining how a person interacts in their environment. These skills help shape how a person creates a social network and how to choose certain health behaviors. Non-cognitive skills are known to be influenced by the environment, especially in regards to health and social support. The most influential trait is conscientiousness, which is comprised mostly of grit, an understudied characteristic.  Grit is conceptualized as a stable trait that does not immediately require positive feedback.  Individuals high in grit are able to maintain their determination and motivation over long periods despite experiences with failure and adversity. Grit has been isolated as the non-cognitive skill of choice for this study because of the increasing amount of literature on it and that it taps into other essential skills necessary for a higher quality of life. Studies have shown that links health and social support to the development and strength of non-cognitive skills. However these correlations have not been fully understood when singling out a particular skill. Workforce development agencies have benchmarks of success that typically involve the client’s sustained employment and rarely accurately assess the client’s non-cognitive skills. This paper aims to investigate the affects of health and social support on grit.

Methods/Results: This study uses distinct data collected from three different local social service agencies in Chicago, IL. Regression analysis was completed on 520 low-income, job seeking adults. Using validated scales for each variable and controlling for demographic variables, a series of multiple regression results indicate that social support (β=0 .36, ρ<0 .001) and health—physical (β =0 .00, ρ<0 .001), emotional (β=0.01, p<0 .001), and general (β= 0.01, ρ<0 .001)—have statistically significant independently and combined effects on grit.

Implications: There is strong evidence that social support and health measures have a significant impact on one’s grit which is important for understanding how one’s grit is shaped and can be supported. This finding is important for workforce development practitioners to understand when working with job seeking clients who are having difficulty in demonstrating the necessary tenacity to continue on the path to achieve employment goals. Knowing that there is a strong and significant interaction of health (emotional, physical and general) has on grit will help practitioners work with their clients in creating long term goals, especially ones towards employment as job obtainment is as important as growth within the position.