Predictive Validity of the Perseverance of Effort Scale

This research is the first experimental attempt to test the predictive validity of the Perseverance of effort scale. Moreover, it contributes to the available pool of longitudinal studies where the Perseverance of effort was examined as a subscale of the Grit Scale. The latter was included in the national panel study "Trajectories in Education and Occupation". Our findings indicated that, firstly, in the long term the Persistence of efforts scale significantly predicted students’ later academic outcomes and achievements, such as PISA-2012 and the Unified State Exam scores, although other variables, such as students’ ESCS and interests, were stronger predictors of their grades. Secondly, in the short term the self-rating score, obtained with the use of this scale, failed to account for actual behavior of individuals under the experimental conditions of failure. One possible explanation is that the domain general level of the Perseverance of effort scale is not identical to the participants’ specific goals during the survey.