Do Mindsets Shape Students' Well-Being and Performance?
Nancy Berenice Ortiz Alvarado1, Marisol Rodríguez Ontiveros1, Edgardo Arturo Ayala Gaytán2
1EGADE Business School.
The Journal of Psychology
|July 18, 2019
Summary
A growth mindset, believing intelligence can be developed, is linked to higher student wellbeing and academic performance. Wellbeing acts as a key factor, especially for younger students, in this relationship.
Area of Science:
- Educational Psychology
- Social Psychology
Background:
- Mindsets, or implicit theories, shape beliefs about human attributes like intelligence.
- A fixed mindset views intelligence as static, while a growth mindset sees it as improvable.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the connections between growth mindset, student wellbeing, and academic performance.
- To examine the mediating role of wellbeing in the growth mindset-performance link.
- To explore age-related differences in the impact of growth mindset on academic outcomes.
Main Methods:
- A quantitative study involving 1,240 university students across multiple campuses in Mexico.
- Assessment of students' mindsets (growth vs. fixed), wellbeing levels, and academic performance (grades).
Main Results:
- Higher growth mindset scores correlated positively with increased wellbeing and better academic performance.
- Wellbeing significantly mediated the relationship between growth mindset and academic performance.
- The positive effect of a growth mindset on grades was more pronounced in younger students.
Conclusions:
- Promoting a growth mindset can enhance both student wellbeing and academic achievement.
- Interventions should consider the mediating role of wellbeing and age-specific effects.
- Findings offer valuable insights for educational psychology and pedagogical practices.
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