Assessment of the Short Grit Scale in patients with substance use disorder: Psychometric properties and patient characteristics

ABSTRACT

Background: Recovery from substance use disorder requires sustained effort and perseverance. Hence, the resilience factor of grit may be important for people in recovery. Little research has been conducted on grit in patients with substance use disorder (SUD), especially in a large and varied sample.

Objectives: To analyze the psychometric properties of the Short Grit Scale (Grit-S) in patients with SUD and to use demographic and clinical characteristics to predict variance in Grit-S scores.

Methods: Participants completed the Grit-S and other self-report measures. Psychometric properties of the Grit-S were assessed in outpatients (N = 94, 77.7% male) and a hierarchical regression predicted Grit-S variance in inpatients (N = 1238, 65.0% male).

Results: The Grit-S demonstrated good internal consistency (α=.75) and strong test-retest reliability (adjusted r = .79, p < .001). Mean Grit-S score was 3.15, lower than other clinical samples reported in the literature. Regression modeling indicated a moderate, statistically significant association between demographic and clinical characteristics and Grit-S scores (R² = 15.5%, p < .001). Of particular interest, the positive factor of recovery protection showed the strongest association with Grit-S of all variables assessed (β=.185 vs. β = .052–.175 for the remaining significant independent variables).

Conclusion: The psychometric properties of the Grit-S in patients with SUD support its use in this population. Moreover, the particularly low grit scores among inpatients with SUDs and the association of grit scores with substance use risk and recovery factors suggest that grit could be useful as a treatment target in this population.

KEYWORDS:

• Addiction
• positive psychology
• resilience
• test-retest
• psychometrics

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the study participants for giving generously of their time and sharing their experiences with us.

Disclosure statement

Dr. Weiss has served as a consultant to Analgesic Solutions (Wayland, MA), WCG (Needham, MA), and Alkermes (Waltham, MA). The authors are solely responsible for the design of the study and the content, writing, and preparation of this manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported in part by the Charles Engelhard Foundation, New York, NY (Dr. Weiss). The funder had no involvement in study design, data collection or analysis, writing, or preparation of the manuscript.