The vicious circle of mindset and psychological stress

The mental health of pupils and students has become an important topic of concern in recent years. The pressure to perform, social expectations, and learning challenges can place a heavy burden on young people. A recent study by Kroeper et al. (2024) provides insight into a crucial factor contributing to this stress: the perception of mindset in the classroom. They discovered a vicious circle of mindset and psychological stress.

What is mindset?

Before we delve deeper into the study's findings, it's important to understand what we mean by “mindset.” Mindset refers to the beliefs people have about the changeability of their intelligence, skills, and traits. A growth mindset is the belief that we can develop it. A fixed mindset is the belief that these traits are fixed and that we can hardly change them.

The Study: A Reciprocal Relationship

The study examined how classmates' perceptions of classroom mindset are related to psychological stress in students. The researchers discovered a reciprocal relationship between these factors. For one semester, the researchers followed 288 students taking a physics course. The data was collected through weekly surveys in which students reported their personal mindset, the perceived mindset of their class, and their levels of psychological stress.

► The results showed that:

• When students perceived the classroom environment as more fixed, they reported higher levels of psychological stress later in the semester.
• Students who experienced higher levels of stress later perceived their classroom environment as more fixed.

The Vicious Circle of Mindset and Psychological Stress

This reciprocal effect creates a vicious circle: students who think their classmates and teachers believe intelligence is fixed feel more stressed. This stress, in turn, reinforces their perception that the classroom environment is fixed. These findings highlight the importance of addressing both mindset perceptions and psychological stress simultaneously.

Practical Implications

What can we do with this information? Here are some suggestions the authors mention:

1. Create an environment that promotes growth mindset: The authors emphasize the importance of creating classroom environments that promote growth mindset messages. This means that teachers and teaching assistants must give signals that intelligence and skills can be developed through effort, help, and perseverance.
2. Reduce fixed mindset signals: Educational institutions should be aware of and try to reduce the number of signals that promote a fixed mindset. This can be done, for example, by avoiding feedback that emphasizes innate talents and by emphasizing the importance of effort and learning processes.
3. Integrating psychological support: The study suggests that interventions should not only focus on changing mindsets but also on providing psychological support to reduce stress. By addressing both aspects simultaneously, the vicious circle of stress and fixed mindset perceptions can be broken.
4. Train teachers and teaching assistants: Training teachers and teaching assistants to convey growth mindset messages and to effectively deal with signals of a fixed mindset can contribute to a more supportive learning environment.

Conclusion

The mental health problems among students require effective and well-thought-out interventions. This study shows that perceptions of mindset and psychological stress mutually influence each other, suggesting that both aspects need to be addressed simultaneously to make real progress. By creating a supportive learning environment that promotes a growth mindset and supports psychological well-being, we can help students learn and perform better and more happily.