Growth mindset is associated with mastery goals in adulthood

Abstract

Growth mindsets, the belief that intelligence can grow with effort and training, have been associated with the adoption of mastery goals in children and adolescents. However, it is unknown whether these two factors are also correlated in adults. We conducted two online studies among three hundred participants to challenge this association. Results from (1) zero-order correlations, (2) structural equation modeling and (3) out-of-sample predictions converged on the finding that growth mindset was associated with the adoption of mastery goals in mathematics. This association generalized across different ways of measuring mindsets. Taken together the results provided new evidence for the idea that mindset and goal achievement are intrinsically related concepts, which remain associated across different life stages and generalize across populations.