A brief behavioral measure of frustration tolerance predicts academic achievement immediately and two years later.

Abstract

Achieving important goals is widely assumed to require confronting obstacles, failing repeatedly, and persisting in the face of frustration. Yet empirical evidence linking achievement and frustration tolerance is lacking. To facilitate work on this important topic, we developed and validated a novel behavioral measure of frustration tolerance: the Mirror Tracing Frustration Task (MTFT). In this 5-min task, participants allocate time between a difficult tracing task and entertaining games and videos. In two studies of young adults (Study 1: N ϭ 148, Study 2: N ϭ 283), we demonstrated that the MTFT increased frustration more than 18 other emotions, and that MTFT scores were related to self-reported frustration tolerance. Next, we assessed whether frustration tolerance correlated with similar constructs, including self-control and grit, as well as objective measures of real-world achievement. In a prospective longitudinal study of high-school seniors (N ϭ 391), MTFT scores predicted grade-point average and standardized achievement test scores, and-more than 2 years after completing the MTFT-progress toward a college degree. Though small in size (i.e., rs ranging from .10 to .24), frustration tolerance predicted outcomes over and above a rich set of covariates, including IQ, sociodemographics, self-control, and grit. These findings demonstrate the validity of the MTFT and highlight the importance of frustration tolerance for achieving valued goals.

Validation of survey effort measures of grit and self-control in a sample of high school students

“…forward by students on tedious school related tasks [15], and frustration tolerance, the ability to overcome frustration arising from challenges that block goals [16], Our results suggest that survey effort can be used as proxy measures of grit and self-control.…”

“…We observed a similar pattern compared to the zero-order correlations, but partial correlations with teacher reports and performance task measures were smaller. Although the magnitudes of the correlations between survey effort and survey self-reported measures may appear small, they are at least as large as the correlations reported in prior literature validating other behavioral-task measures of conscientiousness, grit, and self-control [24] [15] [16].…”

“…A total of 154 students opted out of the study. One year later, the research team used National Student Clearinghouse (a non-profit organization offering nationwide college enrollment and degree attainment data, see https://www.studentclearinghouse.org/) to track college enrollment status of as many participants as possible, which resulted in a study with adequate power to detect small to medium effects [16],…”

“…Mirror Tracing Frustration Task (MTFT). Participants were also asked to complete the Mirror Tracing Frustration Task (MTFT) [16], The MTFT measures frustration tolerance. During this task, students were given the option to trace a shape using the mouse on their computer or consume media by watching online videos.…”

(accepted) Cognitive regulation outdoes behavior regulation in predicting state standardized test scores over time

“…Works from clinical, cognitive, and social psychology highlight the importance of emotion self-regulation, i.e., the ability to modulate, change, and properly appraise strong emotional reactions with appropriate and flexible strategies (Graham, & Taylor, 2014;Gross, 1998;Gross, 2008;Weiner, 1985;Wilson, & Buttrick, 2016). Students must, for example, be able to maintain task engagement when hungry (Shoda et al, 1990), anxious (Cisler et al, 2010;Smith et al, 2018), and frustrated (Meindl, Yu, Galla, Quirk, Haeck, Goyer, Lejuez, D'Mello, & Duckworth, 2019), among other affective experiences that are common in classrooms. While emotion self-regulation is an important construct within the self-regulation literature, in this study, we focused on the differences between behavioral self-regulation and cognitive selfregulation, which we now address.…”