Persistence, presented in two forms, is one of the key determinants that allow many students to achieve their desired academic excellence. Flexible persistence is working towards a goal with an open focus that allows for the achievement of other goals in life while rigid persistence is working towards a goal with a narrow focus that hardly allows for involvement in other goals in life. For instance, a student working on completing a project with flexible persistence will do so while spending time with their family and attending clubs while one with rigid persistence will only be involved in their project. Working in line with persistence, passion (whether harmonious as a part of one’s identity or obsessive based on internal and external pressures such as self-esteem and social acceptance), also contributes to academic achievement. Although it is known that higher levels of intensity in persistence correlate with better outcomes, there is very little research on the different forms of persistence and its potential influence on academic and non-academic outcomes.
In an effort to address this gap, two studies were conducted. In Study 1, the authors recruited 591 science students who were enrolled in two-year pre-university STEM programs, which prepare students to pursue their studies at a university later on, from six public colleges in Eastern Canada. Each student answered a questionnaire that required them to rate their harmonious (e.g., “The new things that I discover in science allow me to appreciate it even more”) and obsessive passion (e.g., “I have almost an obsessive feeling for science”), rigid and flexible persistence (e.g., “I try to reach my goals in science, but not at the expense of other life goals”), intention to study science at university, and psychological well-being (student’s satisfaction with life, happiness, and meaningfulness). All measures were rated based on a five-point scale between 1 (“I totally disagree”) and 5 (“I totally agree”). Their academic performance (overall science course average from a scale of 1 = less than 60% to 9 = 95% - 100%) was also recorded. In Study 2, a sample of 196 students from Study 1 who were in their second year of the pre-university program was gathered. The students were once again assigned to complete a questionnaire measuring passion, persistence, and psychological well-being, all based on a scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree), as well as involvement in extracurricular activities, self-reported science grades, and applications to science university programs. Extracurricular activities were assessed based on a dichotomous scale (1 = No and 2 = Yes) measuring their involvement in any science-related extracurricular activity they took part in during the entire semester. Applications to science programs were measured on the amount of programs they reported having applied to while academic performance was measured using the same scale present in Study 1.
The results of Study 1 showed that harmonious passion predicts flexible persistence while obsessive passion leads to rigid persistence, and that both types of persistence were related to positive academic outcomes. However, only flexible persistence prompted positive outcomes that were beyond academics. Furthermore, they found that students with higher grades in science courses are more likely to pursue a STEM program at universities in the future and that those who are involved in more science-related extracurricular activities are more likely to have higher grades in science courses. Despite these results, limitations of the studies include that the variability between certain measures might have been higher as participants may interpret and respond to the persistence scale differently.
Chichejian and Vallerand’s research study suggests the need for teachers to foster students’ flexible persistence in order to facilitate positive outcomes in academic studies and students’ well-being. Parents should promote the desire for academic achievement amongst their child(ren) while also actively encouraging them to take part in extracurricular activities to maintain a balance. Its focus on the effects of persistence on helping individuals reach goals aligns with EPIC’s research on the impact of goals on coping with failures. In the future, EPIC can conduct studies that examine different types of persistence and how it may impact students’ emotional and behavioral responses in the face of challenges and setbacks.
If you want to learn more about Chichekian and Vallerand’s (2022) study, check it out at:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1041608021001412
This post is written by Jessica Wang.
Reference:
Chichekian, T., & Vallerand, R. J. (2022). Passion for science and the pursuit of scientific studies: The mediating role of rigid and flexible persistence and activity involvement. Learning and Individual Differences, 93, 102104.