Can Growth Mindset help improve
Mental Health?
We believe through our research that Growth Mindset can not only improve mental illness symptoms, but it can also help prevent them in later life.
At Grow Your Mindset we are passionate about mental health. Many of the primary school children we taught had some sort of mental health problem. Some diagnosed, some not, some being managed, some not. If you think back to what a fixed mindset looks, sounds and feels like; fear of failing, fear of challenges, fear of judgement, feeling threatened by other people's success, you can soon see why these emotions, over a period of time can effect our mental health.
And the proof is out there too.
Research recently carried out by Schleider, Abel and Weisz, all highly regarded University professors from the USA, conducted studies involving over 6500 students. They found that those with a fixed mindset were 58% more likely to show symptoms of anxiety, aggression and depression than their growth mindset peers.
*WARNING - Extreme overload of scientific and psychology based research, for all you boffins!
And there's more!
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Growth mindset & anxiety & depression
Schleider and Weisz conducted further research into whether Growth Mindset intervention could improve symptoms of mental illness, giving students the tools they needed to cope with these emotions. They found from their work, that those who had developed more of a Growth Mindset had improved ability to cope with anxiety and stress than those that did not. Even after a period of 9 months, those students who had received mindset intervention had shown improvements in the reduction of depression and anxiety.
This link is not just in the world of education, but also in the wider community and business sector. The research further showed that the more fixed a person's attitude, belief and focus was, the greater the symptoms of mental illness.
Growth mindset and its effect on self-esteem
More work was carried out looking at the link between mindsets, academic performance and self-esteem. Those who believed they could not improve their academic ability (fixed mindset), experienced more emotions that would decrease self esteem.
Growth mindset and aggression
And the links continue with a further study that showed developing a
Growth Mindset reduced the amounts of aggression shown by students and also reduced the amount of exclusions.
Does a Fixed Mindset predict Mental Illness?
Does a Fixed Mindset predict Mental Illness? A few studies have conflicting evidence on this, that there may be a vice versa link too.
One study showed that children who showed predominately a fixed mindset in their first year of high school, showed more symptoms of depression the following year.
However, another study showed students with significantly poor mental health, went on to develop more Fixed Mindset beliefs and behaviours than those who had good mental health.
So with this one, the jury is still out and as soon as we know, we'll let you know!
We have also connected with the following organisations who support individuals and families with addiction.
