Growth mindset and teen social stress
I’ve written before about growth mindset. Jiang, Fang & Mueller (2023) published “Growth Mindset: An umbrella for protecting socially stressed adolescents’ life satisfaction” in School Psychology. Here are the edited abstract and impact statements:
Research suggests that growth mindset shows positive effects on adolescents’ academic achievement, especially in overcoming academic-related setbacks. It remains unclear, however, how growth mindset functions in the presence of social stress, a risk factor for adolescent mental health. In the present study, we explored how growth mindset of thoughts-emotions-behaviors predicted dual indicators of adolescents’ mental health (life satisfaction and emotional problems), and if and how growth mindset interacted with peer and family stress to predict mental health. A total of 791 adolescents (Mage = 16.32 years, SD = 1.1, range 14–18; 60.8% female; 9th–12th grades; African American 34.5%, White 31.4%, Asian 13.2%, Hispanic 11.6%, biracial or multiracial 8.2%, others 1%, and missing 1%) participated via self-report surveys. A structural equation modeling approach was adopted to simultaneously model both the main and interaction effects. Results showed one significant interaction effect—between growth mindset and peer stress—on predicting life satisfaction (β = 0.13) and a significant main effect of growth mindset on predicting emotional problems (β = −0.35). The main effects of family stress on both outcomes (β = −0.22, life satisfaction; β = 0.18, emotional problems) were significant in the expected directions.
This study suggests growth mindset of thoughts-emotions-behaviors positively contributes to adolescents’ mental health, indicated by both higher life satisfaction and fewer emotional problems. Also, the results highlight the buffering function of growth mindset as it shields against the negative effect of peer stress on life satisfaction. These findings suggest the positive role of growth mindset in the area of mental health and that growth mindset may be integrated into school psychologists’ work (e.g., assessment, intervention, consultation) related to mental health or wellness promotion.
This is a large and diverse sample with important findings for those who work with teens.