Beyond intelligence: Exploring the role of growth mindsets in the domain of social-emotional skills.

Abstract

Background: Growth mindsets refer to the belief that personal attributes can be developed and improved through learning and effort. Much of the prior work on mindsets has focused on mindsets of intelligence, with little attention devoted to whether and how growth mindsets might also be relevant to the domain of social-emotional skills.

Aims: To address this gap, this study aimed to extend research on growth mindsets to the domain of social-emotional skills and examine the associations between growth mindsets and various types of social-emotional skills. We explored five broad social-emotional skills and 15 specific facet-level skills, including task performance (self-control, responsibility, persistence), emotional regulation (stress resistance, emotional control, optimism), engaging with others (energy, assertiveness, sociability), collaboration (empathy, cooperation, trust) and open mindedness (curiosity, creativity, tolerance).

Sample: We drew on data from 29,798 fifteen-year-old students from 10 cities across nine countries.

Methods: Hierarchical linear modelling was employed to investigate the association between growth mindsets and various types of social-emotional skills.

Results: Results indicated that a growth mindset of social-emotional skills was positively associated with five broad social-emotional skills: task performance, emotional regulation, engaging with others, collaboration, and open-mindedness. These results also applied to the 15 specific facet-level skills. Interestingly, we also found that mindsets of social-emotional skills were most strongly associated with emotional regulation.

Conclusion: This study extended the growth mindset literature by applying it to the domain of social-emotional skills. Our findings may have promising implications for future interventions aimed at improving students' social-emotional skills.