Climbing the Academic Ladder: The Role of Grit and Parental Education in Student Achievement
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62843/jssr.v6i1.713Keywords:
Grit, Perseverance, Academic Success, University Students, EducationAbstract
Education plays an important role in the development of individuals and future success. Beyond cognitive skills, noncognitive skills like grit, perseverance, and persistent effort are recognized to be essential for academic success. Family background and student opportunities, motivation, learning, and even parental educational level, have an impact on students. The current study investigated the relationship of parental educational attainment, grit, and academic Success in Pakistani university students. The study was conducted using Duckworth's Grit Theory and Vygotsky's Social Development Theory as a theoretical framework. The study sought to evaluate the predictive and moderating functions of grit in mediating family background and academic success. Data were gathered from 200 first-year university students in public and private universities via purposive sampling. Standardized scales used were the Grit 12-Item Scale, Statistics Canada Educational Attainment Scale, and Academic Performance Questionnaire. Outcomes identified a strong positive association between grit and academic success, and parental education had no direct correlation with the academic success of students. Regression analysis validated grit as a highly predictive outcome of academic success, accounting for unique variance over demographic variables and parental education attainment. Moderation analysis demonstrated that grit was not a significant moderator of the relationship between parental education attainment and student academic success. Differences based on gender occurred, with male students showing higher scores in grit, whereas female students reported improved performance in academics. These findings highlight the importance of noncognitive attributes such as grit in predicting academic success, independent of parental background.
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