Abstract
Grit, as an important positive psychological quality, has rarely been studied for its role involved in the mechanism between stress and psychological security. This article explores the moderating and mediating role of grit in the relationship between interpersonal stress and psychological security of freshmen through two studies. In study 1, freshmen from several Chinese universities (N = 1,224) were recruited to complete a battery of questionnaire, including assessments about interpersonal stress, grit, and psychological security. The moderating effect analysis showed that grit moderated the relationship between interpersonal stress and psychological security. Specifically, grit buffered the negative effects of interpersonal stress on freshmen’s psychological security, but this effect was obvious only when the level of interpersonal stress was relatively low, and decreased when the level of interpersonal stress was high. In study 2, college freshmen from another university apart from above ones (N = 604) were recruited, and we verified the results of study 1 and further explored the mediating role of grit in the relationship between interpersonal stress and security. The moderating effect analysis of study 2 also verified that of study 1. The mediating effect analysis showed that interpersonal stress not only negatively predicted psychological security, but also affected psychological security through the mediation of grit. In general, grit played a mediating and moderating role in the relationship between interpersonal stress and psychological security. This study provides first-hand evidence to explain the multiple roles of grit in the relationship between interpersonal stress and psychological security.
Highlights
With the rise of positive psychology research, grit has received a great deal of attention from psychologists as an important theme in positive psychology and has emerged as a significant predictor of individual psychology and behavior, such as academic achievement (Duckworth et al, 2007), wellbeing (Datu et al, 2018), and job performance (Musso et al, 2019)
Hierarchical regression analysis was used to examine the moderating effect of grit on the relationship between interpersonal stress and psychological security, and the results showed that interpersonal stress significantly negatively predicted psychological security (β = −0.56, p < 0.001; Hypothesis 1), while grit significantly positively predicted psychological security (β = 0.24, p < 0.001)
This study found that the protective effect of grit on psychological security was applicable to low level of interpersonal stress, which supported the hypothesis of stress vulnerability of positive psychological quality instead of the stress-buffering hypothesis
Summary
With the rise of positive psychology research, grit has received a great deal of attention from psychologists as an important theme in positive psychology and has emerged as a significant predictor of individual psychology and behavior, such as academic achievement (Duckworth et al, 2007), wellbeing (Datu et al, 2018), and job performance (Musso et al, 2019). Previous studies have failed to further elucidate the mechanism of grit’s protective effect on mental health. There are two different views on the role of positive psychology quality in stress and mental health, including the stress-buffering hypothesis and the stress-vulnerability hypothesis (Li et al, 2012). Regarding the role of grit in mental health, previous studies focused on the protective effect of grit (Hobfoll, 1989; Kaniuka et al, 2020; Li and Zhu, 2020), which revealed the moderating effect of grit on the relationship between risk factors and mental health. Some research found that positive psychological quality played a mediating role in the relationship between risk factors and mental health (Cheung et al, 2021). The present study seeks to explore the mechanisms underlying this association between risk factors and mental health using moderating variables and mediating variables, which may help develop methods to mitigate the negative effect of risk factors on mental health
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