Psychosocial Keys to African American Achievement? Examining the Relationship Between Achievement and Psychosocial Variables in High Achieving African Americans
Abstract
Grit, growth mindset, ethnic identity, and other group orientation are four psychosocial variables that have been associated with academic achievement in adolescent populations. In a sample of 105 high achieving African American high school students (cumulative grade point average [GPA] > 3.0), we examined whether these four psychosocial variables contributed to the achievement of high achieving African Americans beyond the contribution of socioeconomic status (SES) and other demographic variables. Results indicated that the psychosocial variables were not significant predictors of academic achievement for the high achieving African American students in this sample. However, SES was a significant predictor of the academic achievement with a medium effect size. These findings suggest that interventions focused on grit, growth mindset, ethnic identity, and other group orientation may not be as effective as hypothesized.
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Psychosocial factors are important in helping gifted students develop their potential gifts, though some factors are probably more useful than others.
“Psychosocial variables also play an important role in supporting gifted students in developing their potential gifts, although some of these variables are likely to be more useful than others (Dixson et al. 2016(Dixson et al. , 2017)).”
From Gifted Students (2019) · cites this paper as Dixson et al. 2017
Cites
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“However, Dixson et al. (2017) found that Grit-PE and Grit CI showed non-significant correlations with academic achievement of African American high school students, and neither comprised a significant predictor.”
BackgroundRecruiting and Retaining Underrepresented Gifted Students
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“Such that, grit was reported to be a poor predictor of academic achievement for African-American students (Dixson et al., 2017).”
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“For example, grit positively predicted academic motivation in Mexican American adolescents (Piña-Watson et al., 2015); however, an analysis of grit among African American high school students indicated that student achievement was not significantly impacted by it (Dixson et al., 2017).”
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Dixson, D. D. (2020) · Current Psychology · doi:10.1007/s12144-020-00975-y · Cited by 24 · see citing works
“Scores on the CHS have been found to be reliable in similar samples with alpha estimates 1 3 ranging from .70 to .85 for pathways, agency, and hope (Dixson 2017).”
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“Related to grit is the idea of a growth mindset (Dixson et al., 2017).”
BackgroundAlatorre, A. I., DePaola, R. V., & Haeffel, G. J. (2019) · Learning and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/j.lindif.2019.101811 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Gentzis, E., & Dixson, D. D. (2023) · School Psychology Review · doi:10.1080/2372966x.2023.2261835 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
“Hope is a cognitive-motivational process that describes one’s self-perceived ability to visualize and complete the steps necessary to attain a desired future goal, irrespective of one’s present circumstances (Dixson, 2017; Snyder, 2002).”
InfluentialSelf-citationWeng, M., Liao, C., Kwok, O., & Wu, J. (2024) · The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher · doi:10.1007/s40299-023-00802-5 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
“Compared to school-level assessments, nationwide tests which occur at the end of instruction are typically less frequent and have higher stakes (Dixson et al., 2017).”
Conducting Research on Psychosocial Skills Associated with Academic Talent Development
Rinn, A. N. (2024) · journal for the education of the gifted · doi:10.1177/01623532241278991 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
“Dixson and colleagues (c.f., Dixson et al., 2017; Dixson et al., 2016) have conducted research to examine subgroups of gifted students.”
Bakchich, J., Claes, N., Carré, A., & Smeding, A. (2024) · Social Psychology of Education · doi:10.1007/s11218-024-09900-8 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
“This finding is inconsistent with previous studies showing no significant relation between these factors when sense of belonging concerned school (Burnette et al., 2018; Dixson, 2020) or ethnic identity (Dixson et al., 2017).”
Parental Perceptions of Grit: First Steps Towards Building Effective Character Education Programs
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“org/jse 49 However, despite initial research conducted by Duckworth et al. (2007), the pedagogical specifics about fostering grit remain unclear, other than the acknowledgement that it is “a disposition held by highly successful individuals” (Stokas, 2015, p.”
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Positive Psychology in Strong Black Marriages: Optimism, Humility, Agency, Growth, and Faith
Vassar, T. A., Marks, L. D., Cannon, D. H., Skipper, A. D., Hendricks, J. J., & Dollahite, D. C. (2025) · Marriage & Family Review · doi:10.1080/01494929.2025.2472151
“Most of the scant research on a growth mindset among African Americans is limited to young adults and academic achievement (Dixson et al., 2017; Wang et al., 2022).”
How Psychosocial Factors Relate to Climate in a Racially Stratified Sample School
Claiborne, J. R., & Dixson, D. D. (2024) · Child and Youth Care Forum · doi:10.1007/s10566-023-09791-4
“…the academic success of minority students (e.g., belonging, expectancy-value; Yeager & Walton, 2011), but they have also been linked to a variety of academic outcomes closely related to school climate (e.g., emotional engagement in school, school belonging; Dix-son, 2019; Dixson et al., 2017b).”
InfluentialSelf-citation
- Authors
- Dixson, D. D., Roberson, C. C. B., & Worrell, F. C.
- Affiliations
- Wayne State University (US)
- University of California, Berkeley (US)
- Corresponding author
- Dixson, Dante D.
- Venue
- Journal of Advanced Academics
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2017-03-31
- Volume
- 28
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 120-140
- ISSN
- 1077-4610 (ISSN-L)
- 1932-202X
- 2162-9536
- OpenAlex
- W2599872207
- Cited by
- 35
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 5
- FWCI
- 6.27
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Advanced Academics (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- African American Success Foundation (Lydia Donaldson Tutt-Jones Memorial Research Grant)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Grit, Self-Efficacy, and Motivation
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Education, Achievement, and Giftedness
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Racial and Ethnic Identity Research
- Keywords
- African American students, academic performance, grit, growth mindset, ethnic identity, socioeconomic status, high-achieving students, high school students
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