Validity and Reliability of the Short Grit Scale Among Medical Students in a Public University in Selangor, Malaysia

Grit is defined as passion and perseverance for long-term goals and is associated with positive educational and psychological outcomes. The 8-item Short Grit Scale (Grit-S), a tool to measure grit, has yet to be validated among Malaysian medical students. This study aimed to validate the Grit-S among this population. This cross-sectional questionnaire validation study included 200 medical students from a public university in Malaysia. The Grit-S consists of eight items framed within two domains: consistency of interest (COI) and perseverance of effort (POE). Content, face and construct validity were assessed. The content and face validity were determined using the item-content validity index (I-CVI) and item-face validity index (I-FVI). The exploratory factor analysis using principal axis factoring with varimax rotation was used to assess the construct validity. The reliability was assessed using internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Both I-CVI and I-FVI were 1. Following factor analysis, item 2 from the POE domain was dropped due to poor factor loading of < 0.3. The final pattern matrix produced a 7-item Grit-S, framed within two domains. The COI domain contains four items (1, 3, 5 and 6) with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.73. The POE domain contains three items (4,7 and 8) with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.75. The overall Cronbach’s alpha for the 7-item Grit-S was 0.73. The test-retest intraclass correlation for all items ranged from 0.62 (95% CI: 0.29–0.80) to 0.80 (95% CI: 0.62–0.90). The findings demonstrated that the adapted 7-item Grit-S has two constructs similar to the original Grit-S. Grit-S is a valid and reliable tool to measure grit among medical students in Malaysia.