Beyond Talent: Examining the Roles of Grit and Growth Mindset over Intelligence for Academic Success

Abstract Research on academic success often highlights grit and growth mindset, but their incremental value beyond cognitive ability remains contested. Grit was modeled as two latent facets (perseverance of effort and consistency of interests), growth mindset and intelligence as latent constructs, and academic self-efficacy and subjective academic attainment as latent outcomes. In a sample of N = 431 German university students, perseverance of effort robustly predicted higher self-efficacy and subjective attainment beyond verbal and figural intelligence, demographic covariates, and A-level exam scores. It also predicted lower dropout intention. Consistency of interests showed no positive incremental association and was negatively related to self-efficacy when perseverance was controlled. Growth mindset did not predict academic outcomes or grit facets. Scholarship support was primarily associated with A-level exam scores rather than motivational predictors. Findings indicate that perseverance, rather than growth mindset, is the most relevant predictor in this selected university sample.