Examining the interplay between translation students’ grit, self-efficacy and academic achievement

Abstract Despite the relevance of positive psychology in education and decades of scholarly research in related fields, translation studies has yet to thoroughly examine the psychological constructs that affect translation students’ performance and emotional functioning. To address this gap in the psychology of translation education, this paper explores the potential impact of grit and self-efficacy — two constructs from positive psychology — on the academic achievement of Iranian trainee translators, as indicated by their cumulative grade point average. A sample of 264 translation students from various Iranian universities participated in the survey, completing self-report measures of grit, self-efficacy, and academic achievement. To investigate causal relationships among the research variables, structural equation modeling was employed. The preliminary findings revealed positive correlations between the components of grit and academic achievement, while self-efficacy did not show a significant correlation with academic achievement. The contributions of grit and self-efficacy to academic achievement were also analyzed through mediation analysis. It was determined that self-efficacy influenced academic achievement through the mediation of grit, indicating that grit components act as a mediator in the relationship between self-efficacy and academic achievement. Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that trainee translators who exhibit higher levels of grit and self-efficacy are more likely to succeed academically.