IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jhappi/v22y2021i7d10.1007_s10902-020-00343-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Are Gritty People Happier than Others?: Evidence from the United States and South Korea

Author

Listed:
  • Hye Won Kwon

    (University of Turku)

Abstract

Grit, which refers to perseverance and passion to pursue long-term goals, has been highlighted as a predictor of better life outcomes, including subjective well-being. For grit to be useful for well-being research, we need to know more about its properties across cultures and determine whether it has a relationship to well-being outcomes beyond other existing psychological measures. Using survey data from the United States and South Korea (N = 1008), this study examines the measurement of grit across cultures as having two dimensions: perseverance of effort and consistency of interest. It then explores the distinctive utility of grit in explaining an individual’s subjective well-being beyond well-established psychological measures such as conscientiousness and sense of control. The results show that gritty people report better subjective well-being; this positive relationship between grit and subjective well-being is largely driven by the perseverance dimension of grit. This dimension accounts for a unique variance in subjective well-being beyond the sense of control in both country samples and variance beyond conscientiousness in the US sample. By contrast, the consistency dimension of grit adds little to our understanding of subjective well-being in either country. Relying on the global grit score, which aggregates the scores of the two dimensions, may obscure the unique role of the perseverance dimension in understanding subjective well-being.

Suggested Citation

  • Hye Won Kwon, 2021. "Are Gritty People Happier than Others?: Evidence from the United States and South Korea," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 22(7), pages 2937-2959, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jhappi:v:22:y:2021:i:7:d:10.1007_s10902-020-00343-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s10902-020-00343-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10902-020-00343-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10902-020-00343-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Johnson, Rebecca & Harkins, Kristin & Cary, Mark & Sankar, Pamela & Karlawish, Jason, 2015. "The relative contributions of disease label and disease prognosis to Alzheimer's stigma: A vignette-based experiment," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 117-127.
    2. Paul A. Djupe & Jacob R. Neiheisel & Anand E. Sokhey, 2018. "Reconsidering the Role of Politics in Leaving Religion: The Importance of Affiliation," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 62(1), pages 161-175, January.
    3. Ed Diener & Christie Napa-Scollon & Shigehiro Oishi & Vivian Dzokoto & Eunkook Suh, 2000. "Positivity and the Construction of Life Satisfaction Judgments: Global Happiness is not the Sum of its Parts," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 1(2), pages 159-176, June.
    4. Sonja Lyubomirsky & Heidi Lepper, 1999. "A Measure of Subjective Happiness: Preliminary Reliability and Construct Validation," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 46(2), pages 137-155, February.
    5. Ed Diener, 2006. "Guidelines for National Indicators of Subjective Well-Being and Ill-Being," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 7(4), pages 397-404, November.
    6. Mia M. Vainio & Daiva Daukantaitė, 2016. "Grit and Different Aspects of Well-Being: Direct and Indirect Relationships via Sense of Coherence and Authenticity," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 17(5), pages 2119-2147, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hirsch, Thalia & Busse, Britta, 2020. "The importance of subjective measurements in child and youth well-being studies," Schriftenreihe Institut Arbeit und Wirtschaft 29/2020, Institut Arbeit und Wirtschaft (IAW), Universität Bremen und Arbeitnehmerkammer Bremen.
    2. Edsel Beja & David Yap, 2013. "Counting Happiness from the Individual Level to the Group Level," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 114(2), pages 621-637, November.
    3. Erik Angner, 2011. "Current Trends in Welfare Measurement," Chapters, in: John B. Davis & D. Wade Hands (ed.), The Elgar Companion to Recent Economic Methodology, chapter 6, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Cynthia Leung & Janet T. Y. Leung & Sylvia Y. C. L. Kwok & Anna Hui & Herman Lo & H. L. Tam & Simon Lai, 2021. "Predictors to Happiness in Primary Students: Positive Relationships or Academic Achievement," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 16(6), pages 2335-2349, December.
    5. Maria Carella & Thaís García-Pereiro & Roberta Pace, 2022. "Subjective Well-Being, Transnational Families and Social Integration of Married Immigrants in Italy," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 161(2), pages 785-816, June.
    6. Angner, Erik, 2010. "Subjective well-being," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 361-368, June.
    7. Wei Cui & Zhihui Yang, 2022. "Association Between Connection to Nature and Children’s Happiness in China: Children’s Negative Affectivity and Gender as Moderators," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 47-63, January.
    8. Andrea Bonanomi & Alessandro Rosina, 2022. "Employment Status and Well-Being: A Longitudinal Study on Young Italian People," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 161(2), pages 581-598, June.
    9. Torshizian, Eilya & Mehrara, Mohsen, 2011. "The effects of Economy, Values and Health on Happiness In Iran: the case of the Kish Island," MPRA Paper 30085, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 05 Apr 2011.
    10. Miha Dominko & Miroslav Verbič, 2022. "The effect of subjective well‐being on consumption behavior," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(2), pages 876-898, June.
    11. Romina Boarini & Margherita Comola & Femke Keulenaer & Robert Manchin & Conal Smith, 2013. "Can Governments Boost People’s Sense of Well-Being? The Impact of Selected Labour Market and Health Policies on Life Satisfaction," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 114(1), pages 105-120, October.
    12. Francesco Sarracino, 2014. "Richer in Money, Poorer in Relationships and Unhappy? Time Series Comparisons of Social Capital and Well-Being in Luxembourg," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 115(2), pages 561-622, January.
    13. Papageorgiou, Athanasios, 2018. "The Effect of Immigration on the Well-Being of Native Populations: Evidence from the United Kingdom," MPRA Paper 93045, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Rogie Royce Carandang & Akira Shibanuma & Edward Asis & Dominga Carolina Chavez & Maria Teresa Tuliao & Masamine Jimba, 2020. "“Are Filipinos Aging Well?”: Determinants of Subjective Well-Being among Senior Citizens of the Community-Based ENGAGE Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(20), pages 1-13, October.
    15. O'Donnell, Gus & Oswald, Andrew J., 2015. "National well-being policy and a weighted approach to human feelings," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 59-70.
    16. Joey Man Yee KWOK & Douglas Kei Shing NG, 2016. "A Study of the Perceived Stress Level of University Students in Hong Kong," International Journal of Psychological Studies, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 8(4), pages 1-91, December.
    17. Stewart McCann, 2011. "Emotional Health and the Big Five Personality Factors at the American State Level," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 12(4), pages 547-560, August.
    18. Camilo Herrera & Javier Torres-Vallejos & Jonathan Martínez-Líbano & Andrés Rubio & Cristian Céspedes & Juan Carlos Oyanedel & Eduardo Acuña & Danae Pedraza, 2022. "Perceived Collective School Efficacy Mediates the Organizational Justice Effect in Teachers’ Subjective Well-Being," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(17), pages 1-10, September.
    19. Lange, Florian & Dewitte, Siegfried, 2020. "Positive affect and pro-environmental behavior: A preregistered experiment," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    20. Mostafa E. Shahen & Shibly Shahrier & Koji Kotani, 2019. "Happiness, Generativity and Social Preferences in a Developing Country: A Possibility of Future Design," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-17, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:jhappi:v:22:y:2021:i:7:d:10.1007_s10902-020-00343-4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.