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Short Grit Scale

Grit-S
psychologyeducationsocial sciencesFree for research use

An 8-item measure of grit (perseverance and passion for long-term goals) with two 4-item subscales: consistency of interest and perseverance of effort.

Items
8
Response format
5-point Likert
Version
1.0
Subscales
2

Ready-to-cite methods sentence

Grit was assessed with the Short Grit Scale (Grit-S; Duckworth & Quinn, 2009), an 8-item measure with acceptable-to-good internal consistency (α ≈ .83).

Reliability & validation

Validation population
Adults and adolescents (Duckworth & Quinn, 2009)
Cronbach's α
0.83

Subscales

Consistency of InterestPerseverance of Effort

Response anchors

Not at all like me · Not much like me · Somewhat like me · Mostly like me · Very much like me

Known limitations

The consistency-of-interest subscale often shows weaker reliability than perseverance-of-effort, and grit overlaps substantially with conscientiousness, raising questions about incremental validity.

Original citation

Duckworth, A. L., Quinn, P. D. (2009). Development and validation of the Short Grit Scale (Grit-S). Journal of Personality Assessment, 91(2), 166-174.

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223890802634290

Questions researchers ask

What does the Grit-S measure?

An 8-item measure of grit (perseverance and passion for long-term goals) with two 4-item subscales: consistency of interest and perseverance of effort.

How many items does the Grit-S have?

The Short Grit Scale (Grit-S) has 8 items across 2 subscales: Consistency of Interest, Perseverance of Effort.

Is the Grit-S free to use?

The Grit-S is free to use for non-commercial academic research. You don't need to pay a license fee, but you should always cite the original publication.

Is the Grit-S reliable?

Validation studies report Cronbach's α of 0.83. See the reliability section for the population studied and full statistics.

Who developed the Grit-S, and how do I cite it?

Duckworth, A. L., Quinn, P. D. (2009). Development and validation of the Short Grit Scale (Grit-S). Journal of Personality Assessment, 91(2), 166-174. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223890802634290

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Library entry verified July 2026. Metadata is provided for reference; item wording is available inside Folio Surveyor, subject to each instrument's licensing.