Qualitative Exploration of Chinese Students’ Perspectives on Long-Term Goal Striving

Abstract

Many scholars have emphasized the role of passion and effort in successfully achieving goals, but others have argued that many factors can affect goal achievement. This qualitative study explored Chinese students’ perspectives on how one achieves long-term goals. We conducted individual, in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 13 Chinese university students to capture their past experiences of and perspectives on pursuing long-term goals. A new model in understanding Chinese students’ long-term goal striving was proposed with five elements identified: persistent effort, adaptability, self-confidence, self-talk, and social support. Findings from this study enriched grit research by bringing attention to the role of culture in the conceptualization of goal striving. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Disclosure statement

The data sets associated with this paper are available upon request from the corresponding author. There is no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Additional information

Funding

Kelly Ka Lai Lam received the 2020/2021 PhD Assistantship.