Jana Patricia M. Valdez

The Successful Life of Gritty Students: Grit Leads to Optimal Educational and Well-Being Outcomes in a Collectivist Context

Research has shown that grit facilitates positive psychological outcomes. Yet, almost all of these empirical investigations were carried out in Western societies which raise potential issues with regard to the generalizability of these results in collectivist settings. The present research hopes to address the dearth of studies on grit in non-Western cultures through investigating the psychological effects of grit on educational and well-being outcomes among Filipino high school students. Six hundred six Filipino high school students (n = 606) participated in the current research. Results showed interesting cross-cultural differences. First, the two dimensions of grit – consistency of interest and perseverance of effort – were not significantly correlated. Second, path analysis revealed differential prediction associated with the two dimensions of grit. Only perseverance of effort positively predicted behavioral engagement, emotional engagement, and flourishing. However, both consistency of interest and perseverance of effort negatively predicted behavioral and emotional disengagement. The implications of the findings to existing theory and practice are discussed.

Psychological capital bolsters motivation, engagement, and achievement: Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies

Abstract Psychological capital (PsyCap) has been widely investigated in the organizational context. However, limited attention has been given to the role of PsyCap in the academic setting. The primary objective of this study was to examine how PsyCap is associated with academic motivation, engagement, and achievement using both cross-sectional (Study 1) and longitudinal (Study 2) approaches. Study 1 revealed that PsyCap was associated with higher autonomous motivation and controlled motivation even after controlling for relevant demographic variables. PsyCap was also associated with lower levels of amotivation. Study 2 showed that PsyCap was both a concurrent and prospective predictor of autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, academic engagement, and academic achievement even after controlling for their respective autoregressors and other relevant covariates. Mediational analyses indicated that the effects of T1 PsyCap on T2 achievement and T2 engagement were mediated by T2 autonomous motivation. The theoretical and practical implications are elucidated.

The academic rewards of socially-oriented happiness: Interdependent happiness promotes academic engagement

Interdependent happiness has been found to be positively associated with optimal psychological outcomes in collectivist cultures. However, the association between interdependent happiness and key academic outcomes has remained unexplored. The current study examined the association of interdependent happiness with key academic outcomes such as autonomous motivation, engagement, and achievement using both cross-sectional (Study 1) and longitudinal (Study 2) approaches. Study 1 revealed that interdependent happiness positively predicted academic engagement (partly) via autonomous motivation. Study 2 showed that prior interdependent happiness positively predicted subsequent academic engagement even after controlling for autoregressor effects. In addition, reciprocal associations among the key variables were found. Taken together, results of the two studies suggest that interdependent happiness plays an adaptive role in the academic context especially in a collectivist cultural setting. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Grit is Associated with Lower Depression via Meaning in Life among Filipino High School Students

Grit—passion and perseverance for long-term goals—has been linked to a wide array of positive academic and psychological outcomes. However, limited research has been conducted to explore the association of grit with different indicators of well-being and psychological health. The primary objective of this study was to assess the associations among grit, meaning in life, and depression. There were 447 Filipino high school students who participated in the study. Results of structural equation modeling showed that grit was linked to higher levels of meaning in life dimensions (i.e., presence of meaning and search for meaning in life) and presence of meaning was associated with lower depression. Bias-corrected bootstrapping revealed that grit had an indirect negative influence on depression through the intermediate variable—presence of meaning in life. Theoretical and practical implications are elucidated.

Validation of the Gratitude Questionnaire in Filipino Secondary School Students

Most studies have assessed the psychometric properties of the Gratitude Questionnaire - Six-Item Form (GQ-6) in the Western contexts while very few research has been generated to explore the applicability of this scale in non-Western settings. To address this gap, the aim of the study was to examine the factorial validity and gender invariance of the Gratitude Questionnaire in the Philippines through a construct validation approach. There were 383 Filipino high school students who participated in the research. In terms of within-network construct validity, results of confirmatory factor analyses revealed that the five-item version of the questionnaire (GQ-5) had better fit compared to the original six-item version of the gratitude questionnaire. The scores from the GQ-5 also exhibited invariance across gender. Between-network construct validation showed that gratitude was associated with higher levels of academic achievement (β = .46, p <.001), autonomous motivation (β = .73, p <.001), and controlled motivation (β = .28, p <.01). Conversely, gratitude was linked to lower degree of amotivation (β = -.51, p <.001). Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Is facebook involvement associated with academic engagement among Filipino university students? A cross-sectional study

Abstract The use of Facebook among university students is a controversial issue in the literature as studies point to both positive and negative impacts of this social networking platform. However, little is known about how students’ personal Facebook use may relate to specific domains of academic engagement. In this study, the association of Facebook intensity dimensions (i.e., persistence, boredom, overuse and self-expression) with domains of academic engagement (i.e., agentic, behavioural, cognitive and emotional engagement) was assessed among 700 Filipino undergraduate students (n female  = 402 female and n male  = 298 male; M age  = 19.80, SD age  = 4.26). The results of hierarchical regression analyses showed that self-expression positively predicted agentic engagement even after controlling for relevant demographic covariates such as age, gender and year level. Boredom positively predicted behavioural engagement, while overuse negatively predicted behavioural engagement. The results provide interesting insights into the adaptive and maladaptive aspects of Facebook involvement in the academic context.

The Effects of Benetwise Program on Youth Media Literacy: a Mixed Methods Research

Existing literature has demonstrated that cultivating media literacy skills may optimize various indicators of student success. However, limited research has been conducted to examine how media literacy programs can improve effective consumption and production of media contents. The present research addresses these gaps through providing preliminary evidence about the effectiveness of BeNetWise, which is a two‐year project launched in Hong Kong to educate youth on proper attitude and behavior in the cyberworld. This study was based on a sample of 196 secondary school students who participated in the media literacy intervention. The Chinese version of the New Media Literacy Scale was used to assess functional consumption, critical consumption, functional prosumption and critical prosumption. The results indicated that students who were exposed to this program significantly improved on functional consumption, critical consumption and critical prosumption. Findings point to the advantageous impacts of the BeNetWise project on the adaptive consumption and production of various media contents.

Subjective Happiness Optimizes Educational Outcomes: Evidence from Filipino High School Students

Subjective happiness has been found to be associated with key psychological outcomes. However, there is paucity of research that assessed how subjective happiness is related to a number of positive student outcomes in the educational setting. The objective of the study was to assess the associations of subjective happiness with academic engagement, flourishing, and school resilience among 606 Filipino high school students (m age = 13.87; n boys = 300, n girls = 305, n missing = 1) in the Philippine context. Results of path analysis demonstrated that subjective happiness positively predicted behavioral engagement (β = .08, p < .01), emotional engagement (β = .08, p < .01), flourishing (β = .17, p < .01), and school resilience (β = .18, p < .01) even after controlling for gender. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.