Distributional association of emotional regulation and personality traits on grit among teacher trainees at a Ghanaian college of education

Despite evidence linking emotional regulation and personality traits to grit, limited empirical evidence exists on their distributional effects among Ghanaian teacher trainees. This cross-sectional survey of 288 teacher trainees at Jasikan College of Education used the Short Grit Scale, Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, and Big Five inventory. The study employed ordinary least squares to estimate average conditional associations, while quantile regression with 1000 bootstrap replicates used to examine coefficients across the 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th percentiles with Holm correction for multiple tests. Conscientiousness showed uniformly positive associations with no significant cross quantile differences. Openness exhibited stronger coefficients at lower quantiles for consistency of interest, indicating heterogeneous association. Emotional regulation showed marginal signals at moderate perseverance levels that did not survive correction. Isolated positive neuroticism estimates at specific quantiles are exploratory and require replication. Findings suggest targeted support as a hypothesis for experimental evaluation rather than immediate practice change.