Self-consciousness and grit in rural adolescents: Moderation by self-esteem and mediation by achievement motivation

This study set out to explore the mediating role of achievement motivation and the moderating role of self-esteem in the association between self-consciousness and grit of adolescents. Participants were adolescent students from a Chinese rural middle school (n = 422; female = 58.8%; mean age = 14.13 years; SD = 1.61 years). They completed the Self-Consciousness Scale (SCS), the Grit Scale, the Achievement Motivation Scale (AMS), and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES). The results showed that self-consciousness, achievement motivation, and self-esteem were significantly and positively related to grit. Further, self-consciousness was significantly associated with grit. Moderation-mediation modelling analysis results showed that achievement motivation significantly and indirectly mediated the relationship between self-consciousness and grit. The indirect effect of achievement motivation was significantly moderated by self-esteem, suggesting that with an increased level of self-esteem, self-consciousness effects on achievement motivation weakened. Both achievement motivation and self-esteem appeared to be mechanisms for increasing resilience in rural adolescent students.