Resiliance, Retention, Grit, and Grades: What Matters Most for PTA Student Success
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to compare grit and resilience scores for PTA students with success rates in academic and clinical settings over time.Methods/Description: We will be administering a standardized instrument to determine PTA students’ grit and resilience scores, then following these students over three years to gain information regarding possible correlations between scores and success in academic and clinical settings. We will also continue to follow these students as graduates to determine success rates in licensure exam rates (NPTE for PTA students) and employment success.Results/Outcomes: We will use our collected data in many ways. (1) We would like to compare scores for grit and resiliency to our admissions standards, including high school GPA and SAT scores. (2) We are very interested in retention of PTA students in our program, and the impact, if any, of resilience and grit levels on student performance. (3) We would like to see if grit and resilience improve in PTA students over time. That is, if we administer the same instrument during the first week in the PTA program and during the last week of the program, will the scores change?Conclusions/Relevance to the conference theme: Our Leadership Landscape: Perspectives from the Ground Level to 30,000 Feet: This study fits perfectly with the subtheme of the conference, “Developing strategies to build resilience in academic and clinical environments.” The topic of resilience has not been studied with PTA students, and has been studied on a very limited basis with students in associate degree programs. We hope to add to the body of literature and knowledge available to PTA educators to identify resilience and grit levels in PTA students and compare them to success rates in the classroom and in the clinic. This could help target students are at risk for failure or who might need some additional assistance in order to achieve success. If we are able to identify correlations between grit and resilience and success as a PTA student, we could help improve retention rates in PTA programs and ultimately produce graduates who are well-prepared to navigate successful careers in an ever-changing health care environment. Further, we will examine the changes in grit and resilience scores over time, and begin to explore the possibilities of enhancing these personality traits throughout the PTA educational experience.References: Akos, P. & Kretchmar, J. Investigating grit at a non-cognitive predictor of college success. Rev High Educ. 2017; 40(2):163-186. Bartone PT, Kelly DR, Matthews MD. Psychological hardiness predicts adaptability in military leaders: a prospective study. Int J Select Assess. 2013; 21(2): 200-10. Deakin Crick R, Broadfoot P, Claxton G. Developing an effective lifelong learning inventory: The ELLI project. Assess Educ. 2004; 11(3): 247-272. Duckworth, AL. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. New York, NY. Scribner. 2016. Duckworth, AL, Peterson, C, Matthews MD, Kelly, DR. Grit: perseverance and passion for long-term goals. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2007; 92(6): 1087-101. Duckworth AL, Quinn PD. Development and validation of the short grit scale (frit-S). J Pers Assess. 2009; 91(12): 166-74. Maddi SR, Matthews MD, Kelly DR, Villarreal B, White M. The role of hardiness and grit in predicting performance and retention of USMA cadets. Mil Psychol. 2012; 24(1): 19-28. Martin AJ: Courage in the classroom: exploring a new framework predicting academic performance and engagement. Sch Psychol Q. 2011; 26(2): 145-60. McClelland, DC. How motives, sills, and values determine what people do. Am Psychol. 1985; 40 (7): 812-25. Zhang H, Chan DKS, Guan YJ. Plans are more helpful when one perseveres: the moterating role of persistnace in the relationship between implementation, intentions and goal progress. Basic Appl Soc Psych. 2013; 35(2): 231-40.