Department of Psychology, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, USA.
Department of Psychological Studies in Education, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
J Adolesc. 2022 Jan;94(1):69-80. doi: 10.1002/jad.12006. Epub 2022 Jan 28.
Experiencing elevated stress increases the risk of further difficulties in mental health, including externalizing behaviors in adolescents. There is a need for understanding the factors that help adolescents mitigate social stress to prevent problematic externalizing behaviors. Growth mindset has been found to be a promising protective factor in adolescent development including mental health. This study aimed to examine the potential buffering role of growth mindset of thoughts-emotion-and-behaviors in the context of two types of social stress (i.e., family and peer) to reduce externalizing behaviors among adolescents.
The sample is composed of 399 adolescents (age range 14-18 years, M = 16.22, SD = 1.21; 56.4% female, 42.3% male, 1.3% gender-nonconforming or variant) from a large, urban, diverse high school in the United States. Adolescent self-reports were administered at one time.
Moderation analyses revealed that growth mindset of thoughts, emotion, and behaviors moderate the association between family stress and externalizing behaviors. The magnitude of this association weakened as the level of growth mindset increased, supporting the buffering effect of the moderator. Neither the moderation effect of growth mindset nor the main effects of peer stress and growth mindset were significant in predicting externalizing behaviors.
Taken together, the findings suggested that growth mindset has protective effects in reducing externalizing behaviors when adolescents experience family stress. Future directions and implications are discussed.
经历压力增加会增加心理健康进一步困难的风险，包括青少年的外化行为。因此，需要了解有助于青少年减轻社会压力以预防问题外化行为的因素。成长思维已被发现是青少年发展（包括心理健康）的一个有前途的保护因素。本研究旨在检验思维-情感-行为成长思维在两种类型的社会压力（即家庭和同伴）背景下对减少青少年外化行为的潜在缓冲作用。
该样本由来自美国一所大型城市多元化高中的 399 名青少年（年龄范围 14-18 岁，M = 16.22，SD = 1.21；56.4%为女性，42.3%为男性，1.3%为性别非规范或变体）组成。青少年在一次时进行自我报告。
调节分析显示，思维、情感和行为的成长思维模式调节了家庭压力与外化行为之间的关系。随着成长思维模式水平的提高，这种关联的强度减弱，支持了调节者的缓冲效应。成长思维模式的调节效应以及同伴压力和成长思维模式的主要效应在预测外化行为方面均不显著。
综上所述，研究结果表明，当青少年经历家庭压力时，成长思维模式对减少外化行为具有保护作用。讨论了未来的方向和意义。
