Growth Mindset: Clinical Applications

This is a literature review of a study conducted by Hans S. Schroder et al.  The title of the study is "Growth Mindset of Anxiety Buffers the Link Between Stressful Life Events and Psychological Distress and Coping Strategies."    It was published in 2017 in the Personality and Individual Differences Journal.

Shroder's work discusses how a growth mindset is correlated with a person's ability to cope with stressful life events and argues that more research is needed in the future in order to understand the clinical implications of having a growth mindset.  Because research has shown that growth mindsets lead to more academic perseverence and healthy academic attitudes, it can be suggested that a growth mindset could also improve one's ability to help with mental health when faced with stressful life events (Shroder, 2017, p. 23).

The hypothesis of this study is that the relation of stressful life events and distress will be stronger among those with a fixed mindset than with a growth mindset (Shroder, 2017, p.24).  To test the hypothesis, they conducted a study among 1682 college students.  The students were asked to take a number of Psychological Assessments.  I appreciate how each assessment was carefully used in order for the study to be reliable and valid. 

To test for "Growth Mindset of Anxiety,"  the Implicit Theories of Anxiety Scale (TOA) was used.  This identified each participant as showing either a growth mindset of anxiety or a fixed mindset of anxiety.  Next, to identify what participants has experienced a stressful life event, they administered the Life Events Checklist -5 (LEC-5).  They only considered a stressful life event if a participant indicated that an event happened to them (Shroder, 2017, p.24).

To measure psychological distress, they administered the Posttraumatic Checklist for the DSM-5.  To measure Maladaptive Coping, they administered  the Patient Reported Outcome Measurement System Alcohol Use Short Form, the Drug Abuse Screening Test, and the Inventory of Statements About Self-Injury to determine whether a participant was involved in alcohol abuse, drug abuse, or self harming behaviors (Shroder, 2017, p. 24).

Results:

The results show that the number of stressful life events a person experienced was positively correlated with all other measures of psychological distress except for alcohol abuse.  Also, participants with a growth mindset of anxiety was negatively correlated with all other variables.  When compared to how well stressful life events and anxiety mindset could be compared to predictors of maladaptive coping mechanisms, the mindset of anxiety score showed to be the better predictor than the number of stressful life events (Shroder, 2017, p.24). 

Most importantly, it was found that participants with a fixed mindset of anxiety showed a stronger relationship between stressful life events and maladaptive coping strategies (Shroder, 2017, p.24).  This shows us that having a growth mindset despite experiencing stressful life events may lead to healthier coping mechanisms.   The argument can be made that people who believe that their anxiety can change and situations may improve are more willing to go to counseling, work through stressful events by using a number of strategies, and not base their perception of identity around traumatic events (Shroder, 2017, p 26).

Implications to my study:

  Although I am an educator and not a clinician, I find this research to be fascinating. I think that this study emphasizes the importance of how beneficial it can be to teach students to have a growth mindset.  It could literally save their lives or help find healthy coping strategies when stressful life events happen to them.  Some of my students have already experienced stress full life events and are trying to cope within the classroom on a daily basis. 

My research is focused on how to help struggling students feel more successful in math.  This study kind of puts the idea of this into perspective for me.  It supports the idea that teaching a growth mindset could be considered the priority, rather than teaching to the standard.  I will definitely use this research to discuss the impact that a growth mindset can have outside of the classroom.

References:

Schroder, H. S., Yalch, M. M., Dawood, S., Callahan, C. P., Donnellan, M. B., & Moser, J. S. (2017). Growth mindset of anxiety buffers the link between stressful life events and psychological distress and coping strategies. Personality And Individual Differences, 23. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2017.01.016