Beyond Grades: Understanding Grit, Self-control and, Academic Self-efficacy in Academics

Abstract

Academic performance has caught the attention of many researchers since students are an important asset to any society. Academic performance is enhanced by knowledge of skills which are further divided into two: cognitive factors and non-cognitive factors. Evidence suggests of extensive research on cognitive factors (Noble and Sawyer, 1987). However, there seems to be a dearth of research on the effect of non-cognitive factors on academic performance. Thus, the current research aimed at investigating the relationship between non- cognitive factors and academic performance with mainly three variables: Grit, Self-control, and Academic Self-efficacy. Measures used were the Grit-O Scale (Duckworth, 2007), the Brief Self-Control Scale (Tangney, 2004), and the Academic Self-Efficacy Scale (Gafoor, 2006) to collect data from a sample of 151 college students of Mumbai with a mean age of 19 years. Results revealed that there was a positive, low, and statistically significant relationship between academic self-efficacy and academic performance (rₛ(149)=0.22, p=0.006). Whereas a statistically non-significant relationship was found between grit & academic performance (rₛ(149)=0.15, ns) and self-control & academic performance (rₛ(149)=0.04 ns). Further exploration of the effect of non-cognitive factors on academic performance among students is essential in India.