Comparing Self-Efficacy, Self-Compassion, and Growth Mindset Among Adults With and Without Traumatic Brain Injury

We investigated whether performance on predictors of academic achievement, namely, self-efficacy, self-compassion, and growth mindset, differ between adults, primarily college students, with a history of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and their peers without TBI history.

Eighty-nine respondents anonymously completed an online survey that included demographic questions and three predictive measures of academic achievement: the New General Self-Efficacy Scale (NGSE), the Self-Compassion Scale-Short Form (SCS-SF), and the Growth Mindset Scale. An additional 12 participants with TBI from a previous study (Ackley, 2022) were included in our data analyses, which compared results between participants with and without a TBI history.

At the group level, respondents with a TBI history demonstrated a significantly higher growth mindset than uninjured peers. An age- and gender-matched comparison of a smaller subsample of college student participants confirmed the group difference on growth mindset and revealed higher self-efficacy scores among the student group with a TBI history.

As a group, individuals with TBI did not demonstrate significant differences on self-efficacy and self-compassion measures relative to uninjured peers and also demonstrated higher growth mindset. Thus, evidence does not support the assumption that these are areas of deficit for individuals with TBI history, which suggests that the NGSE, the SCS-SF, and the Growth Mindset Scale are not meaningful ways of measuring progress during cognitive-linguistic treatment in college students who have sustained TBIs unless an individual demonstrates specific deficits in these areas.