8.4. Limitations
This study has several notable limitations. There were several challenges
related to the measures available to assess key constructs as this study used secondary data. The major limitation is that prosocial behavior served as a proxy measure for generativity, as generativity
was not actually measured.Without a measure of generativity, we cannot
be sure that grit motivates older adults to behave prosocially as a
way to be generative. There may be an entirely different motivational
mechanism at work which has yet to be identified.
Another challenge in this study was the relatively small proportion
of older adults and of men in the sample, as their small number makes
it difficult to know that they are representative of other men and
other older adults. The study could have benefitted from more even distributions
of gender and age. The cross-sectional nature of the study was
also a limitation, such that the age at which grit impacts prosocial behavior
could be a cohort effect. A longitudinal examination of the effect
of grit on prosocial behavior would be beneficial. Additionally, only a
small amount of the variance was explained. In the model, 12% of the
variance was explained by main effects, and 14% by the final model. Finally,
participants were self-selected, which could bias the sample.