The Significance of Grit From Social Support and Health Determinants

Non-cognitive skills are known to be influenced by the environment, especially regarding health and social support. One emerging non-cognitive skill is grit that can be defined as a success measure among low-income adults. It has been studied mostly among school-age children as it relates to academic success however little attention has paid to grit in workforce development. This is important to recognize as two identifiers for workforce success are social support and health. This paper aims to investigate the effects of health and social support on grit. Regression analysis was completed on 520 low-income, job seeking adults. A series of multiple regression results indicate that social support and health—physical, emotional, and general—have statistically significant independently and combined effects on grit. This finding is important for workforce development practitioners to understand when working with job seeking clients who are having difficulty in demonstrating the necessary tenacity to continue the path to achieve employment goals.