Growth mindset tempers the effects of poverty on academic achievement - PubMed (original) (raw)

Growth mindset tempers the effects of poverty on academic achievement

Susana Claro et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016.

Abstract

Two largely separate bodies of empirical research have shown that academic achievement is influenced by structural factors, such as socioeconomic background, and psychological factors, such as students' beliefs about their abilities. In this research, we use a nationwide sample of high school students from Chile to investigate how these factors interact on a systemic level. Confirming prior research, we find that family income is a strong predictor of achievement. Extending prior research, we find that a growth mindset (the belief that intelligence is not fixed and can be developed) is a comparably strong predictor of achievement and that it exhibits a positive relationship with achievement across all of the socioeconomic strata in the country. Furthermore, we find that students from lower-income families were less likely to hold a growth mindset than their wealthier peers, but those who did hold a growth mindset were appreciably buffered against the deleterious effects of poverty on achievement: students in the lowest 10th percentile of family income who exhibited a growth mindset showed academic performance as high as that of fixed mindset students from the 80th income percentile. These results suggest that students' mindsets may temper or exacerbate the effects of economic disadvantage on a systemic level.

Keywords: academic achievement; education equality; income; inequality; mindset.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1.

Fig. 1.

Average standardized mathematics and language test scores for students with growth and fixed mindsets by family income decile. A shows language scores, and B shows mathematics scores. Dashed lines represent students with growth mindset, and solid lines represent students with fixed mindset. For clarity, only fixed mindset and growth mindset (not mixed mindset) students are included. However, we note that mixed mindset students consistently fell in between the two other groups.

Fig. 2.

Fig. 2.

Percentage of students with fixed and growth mindsets as a function of family income. Percentages do not add up to 100 at each income decile because, for clarity, only fixed mindset and growth mindset (not mixed mindset) students are included. However, we note that the percentage of mixed mindset students consistently fell in between the two other groups. Families reported their income by selecting one income range from a list. Some income deciles are missing because on the questionnaires, parents were not offered an income choice corresponding to that decile.

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