A Longitudinal Study of Grit, Friendships, and Parental Relationships in Transitional Adolescents: Applying the Autoregressive Cross-Lagged Modeling

This study employed autoregressive cross-lagged modeling (ARCL) to examine the stability and longitudinal predictive relationships among grit, friendships, and parental relationships in adolescents during their transition from middle to high school. Utilizing data from the 3rd, 4th, and 5th waves of the Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey (KCYPS) 2018, the study analyzed autoregressive and cross-lagged effects across 2,094 adolescents. The findings are as follows: First, grit, friendships, and parental relationships exhibited significant autoregressive effects, indicating that these factors at earlier time points significantly influenced the same variables at later time points. Second, the cross-lagged effects between grit and friendships, as well as between friendships and parental relationships, were statistically significant, highlighting the dynamic longitudinal interplay among these variables. However, parental relationships did not significantly predict grit across three time points. These results underscored the importance of supports to foster adolescents’ grit, sustain healthy friendships, and promote positive parental relationships during critical developmental transitions.