Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted adolescent mental health on a global scale. However, many students were resilient during this crisis, despite exposure to COVID-related stressors. We aimed to study the protective effects of growth mindset on school-related resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the mediating effects of coping styles. The two-year follow-up of an ongoing Randomized Controlled Trial, involving a growth mindset and control intervention, took place during the pandemic. We measured growth mindset, school burnout symptoms, COVID-19-specific stressor exposure, coping styles, and calculated a resilience score (corrected for pre-pandemic school burnout symptoms). Mediation analyses were performed in the total sample (N = 261), and exploratory in the intervention subsamples, to test whether the associations between mindset and resilience were mediated by coping styles. Growth-mindset students were more resilient during the pandemic and used less maladaptive and more adaptive (acceptance) coping styles. Coping mediated the relation between mindset and resilience in the total sample (both coping styles), and growth mindset intervention subsample (maladaptive coping). We found unique evidence for the beneficial effects of growth mindset on school-related resilience during the pandemic, and the mediating effect of coping styles as explanatory mechanism. This work contributes to a growing literature that shows positive effects of growth mindset on mental health.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 6060 |
| Pages (from-to) | 1-13 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Journal | Scientific Reports |
| Volume | 13 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 13 Apr 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant 716736 (BRAINBELIEFS). We are grateful for the contributions to this research by the following undergraduate students, Reine Ramaekers, Evy Sens, Fleurie Reeuwijk, Jamie Hoefakker, Lisanne Berends, Lodewike de Groot, Jikke Boelen Keun, Paul Bethlehem, Patricia Dreier Gligoor, Alfa Sanoveriana, Roos de Jong, Iris Koning, Hülya Yilmaz, Chaîmae el Hassouni, biology teacher Anna Tuenter, PhD students Smiddy Nieuwenhuis and Sibel Altikulaç, the main contact persons in the participating schools Annette van Oosten and Astrid Kwakernaak, and all the participating students. Special thanks go to Creative Learning Lab (Waag Society, Amsterdam): Taco van Dijk, Marloeke van der Vlugt, Thomas Asscheman and Karien Vermeulen.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s).
