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To What Extent and Under Which Circumstances Are Growth Mind-Sets Important to Academic Achievement? Two Meta-Analyses

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Abstract

Mind-sets (aka implicit theories) are beliefs about the nature of human attributes (e.g., intelligence). The theory holds that individuals with growth mind-sets (beliefs that attributes are malleable with effort) enjoy many positive outcomes—including higher academic achievement—while their peers who have fixed mind-sets experience negative outcomes. Given this relationship, interventions designed to increase students’ growth mind-sets—thereby increasing their academic achievement—have been implemented in schools around the world. In our first meta-analysis (k = 273, N = 365,915), we examined the strength of the relationship between mind-set and academic achievement and potential moderating factors. In our second meta-analysis (k = 43, N = 57,155), we examined the effectiveness of mind-set interventions on academic achievement and potential moderating factors. Overall effects were weak for both meta-analyses. However, some results supported specific tenets of the theory, namely, that students with low socioeconomic status or who are academically at risk might benefit from mind-set interventions.

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... lustrate the positive effects of growth mindset on higher learning achievement [Blackwell et al., 2007;Romero et al., 2014;Yeager, Dweck, 2012], human resource development [Han, Stieha, 2020], decreased stress, anxiety, and depression [Shroder et al., 2017;Schleider, Weisz, 2018], high work engagement [Zheng et al., 2019] and considerable career success [Burnette et al., 2020]. Most frequently, effects of growth mindset have been studied in educational context [Sisk et al., 2018;Paunesku et al., 2015;Yeager et al., 2019]. Moreover, the recent Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) evaluated 15-year students' beliefs about growth mindset within its wellbeing framework for the first time [OECD, 2019a]. ...
... At the same time, some studies find no robust evidence to support the claim that growth mindset interventions improve learning outcomes [Corradi et al., 2019;Li, Bates, 2020]. In addition, some metanalytical studies [Sisk et al., 2018] revealed inconsistent effect sizes of growth mindset interventions on academic achievement indicating the need to consider under what conditions and for whom growth mindset interventions might be beneficial. ...
... In this regard, some authors report that several factors might moderate the relationship between growth mindset and academic achievement, including psychological factors [Tempelaar et al., 2014;Wang et al., 2020], the socioeconomic background of families [Destin et al., 2019;Sisk et al., 2018], formal resources of the school , peer norms , teacher beliefs [Blackwell et al., 2007;Seaton, 2018]. Amongst these studies, the idea that the relationship between beliefs about intelligence and academic achievement can be sensitive to the socioeconomic background of students has received special attention [Sisk et al., 2018]. ...
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Multiple studies demonstrate a positive association between having a growth mindset and learning achievement. However, recent research reveals that several aspects might moderate this relationship, such as psychological factors, the socioeconomic background of families, sense of belonging to school community, or school characteristics. The present study examines how socioeconomic status (SES) moderates the relationship between growth mindset and academic performance in reading drawing on a nationally representative sample of Kazakhstani students from the PISA 2018 database. The findings suggest that the socioeconomic status of students is a significant moderator in the relationship between growth mindset and learning achievement. The results show that beliefs about growth mindset account for higher learning achievement among both high and low-SES students in Kazakhstan. The last section discusses the policy implications these results have for Kazakhstan.
... In the present meta-analysis, we therefore tested whether dimensionality, and relatedly, recoded versus nonrecoded mindset measures affect the strength of relationships between teachers' mindset and the outcomes. Because we focused on growth mindset in our meta-analysis, and therefore recoded the coefficients from studies that used fixed mindset measures (e.g., Sisk et al., 2018), recoding was done either in the primary study or for the meta-analysis when a study relied on a measure that included nonrecoded fixed mindset items. ...
... When authors employed a mindset measure where higher scores were indicative of a fixed mindset, we reversed the sign of the correlation coefficient before analyzing the data. This approach is in accordance with previous meta-analyses on mindsets (see also, e.g., Sisk et al., 2018) and allowed us to synthesize a larger number of studies for each relationship. When studies measured mindsets with regard to intelligence, ability, or other factors (e.g., personality or morality), we coded only the correlation for the intelligence or ability measure. ...
... For the moderator dimensionality, the following categories were coded: We documented whether the correlation was recoded (i.e., because the scale assessed a fixed mindset) or not (i.e., only growth mindset items were employed, with larger values indicating greater agreement with the growth mindset statements). The recoding could have taken place in the primary study or for the meta-analysis: Due to our focus on teachers' growth mindset, we recoded correlation coefficients obtained in studies that assessed only a fixed mindset (see also, e.g., Sisk et al., 2018). ...
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The concept of growth mindset—an individual’s beliefs that basic characteristics such as intelligence are malleable—has gained immense popularity in research, the media, and educational practice. Even though it is assumed that teachers need a growth mindset and that both teachers and their students benefit when teachers adopt a growth mindset, systematic syntheses of the potential advantages of a growth mindset in teachers are lacking. Therefore, in this article, we present the first meta-analysis on teachers’ growth mindset and its relationships with multiple outcomes (50 studies, 81 effect sizes; N = 19,555). Multilevel analyses showed a small effect across outcomes. Statistically significant small-to-typical positive associations between teachers’ growth mindset and their motivation in terms of self-efficacy and mastery goals were observed in subgroup analyses. No statistically significant relationships were found with teachers’ performance-approach goals, teachers’ performance-avoidance goals, teachers’ performance on achievement tests, or student achievement. Teachers’ growth mindset was related to instructional practices in terms of mastery goal structures but unrelated to performance goal structures. Moderator analyses indicated that the dimensionality of the mindset measure (recoded from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset measure vs. assessed as a growth mindset), item referent and content of the mindset measure, publication status (published vs. unpublished), world region, educational level, and study quality influenced the strengths of some of the relationships. Overall, our findings extend knowledge about teachers’ mindset and add to the evidence base on teacher characteristics and their links to relevant outcomes.
... In contrast, individuals who more strongly believe attributes are stable (fixed mindset) report more avoidant coping, greater symptomology, and more pronounced mental health problems, likely because they believe their efforts will not result in desired outcomes (Burnette et al., 2020a;Schleider et al., 2015). Although there is debate about growth mindset intervention efficacy within academic contexts (e.g., Brez et al., 2020;Macnamara & Burgoyne, 2022;Sisk et al., 2018), their effect on mental health is more robust, especially when targeted to the right populations and implemented with high fidelity . ...
... Some of this heterogeneity can be attributed to individual differences-growth mindset interventions do not work equally well for all individuals. Indeed, theory and meta-analyses on academic achievement suggest that certain targeted samples (i.e., samples that are considered "at risk") demonstrate stronger intervention effects than non-targeted samples (Sisk et al., 2018). However, it is unclear whether individual differences will similarly determine the effectiveness of interventions for psychological and behavioral processes linked to mental health. ...
... As the heterogeneity revolution makes clear, it is important to understand under what conditions and for whom interventions are most effective (Bryan et al., 2021;Yeager et al., 2019). Growth mindset interventions are not always one-size-fits-all (Foliano et al., 2019;Yeager et al., 2019) and targeted interventions may sometimes show stronger effects than nontargeted interventions (Sisk et al., 2018). Although the current study suggests that both depressed and nondepressed adolescents benefit equally from this intervention, more work is needed in the realms of mental health to delineate which populations may benefit most. ...
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Identifying effective, efficient, and scalable mental health growth mindset interventions that harness the benefits of growth mindsets without the costs is critical. In the current work, we tested the potential to leverage compensatory messaging in a growth mindset intervention to improve mental health in youth. The intervention seeks to foster a stronger belief that people and emotions can and do change, while de-emphasizing self-blame. We developed and tested “Healthy Minds,” an interactive single-session 30-minute online growth mindset intervention, with high-school youth (N = 457, age range: 13–19) in a rural southern community. We randomly assigned participants to take Healthy Minds or an attention-matched health-oriented control. Results indicate that Healthy Minds is a promising intervention for fostering stronger growth mindsets and greater self-efficacy for managing depressive symptoms, while also reducing self-blame and avoidant coping. These results can improve the delivery of growth mindset interventions designed to address adolescent mental health issues. We conclude with a discussion of potential boundary conditions and future directions.
... The diagonal line shows the alpha coefficient. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001 Sisk et al. (2018) reported that the mean correlation between a growth mindset and goal-related outcomes (e.g., persistence, intention to persist, intention to challenge) was small (r = .10); in particular, the authors found little association (r = .02) ...
... in adults. It has been previously argued that the effect of a growth mindset is trivial (Burgoyne et al., 2020;Sisk et al., 2018); similarly, the present study also showed that a growth mindset was less related to variables associated with goal pursuit. ...
... A growth mindset of intelligence and beliefs about the utility of effort were barely associated with persistence on the RAT (rs < .12). As shown in previous studies (Burgoyne et al., 2020;Sisk et al., 2018), a growth mindset of intelligence and beliefs about the utility of effort, which are assumed to be associated with it, were also less related to the outcomes in Study 2. ...
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Individuals with high levels of grit are passionate about achieving their targets and persist in realizing challenging goals. However, there is limited research on the mechanisms that explain why people with high levels of grit can persistently work toward challenging goals. This study seeks to fill the knowledge gap by identifying beliefs about difficult experiences as a mediating factor in the relationship between grit and persistence, in addition to a growth mindset. Study 1, including 221 Japanese participants, showed that the association between grit and persistence was mediated by beneficial beliefs about difficult experiences, rather than by a self-regulating growth mindset. Study 2, including 346 Japanese participants, showed that the association between grit and persistence was mediated by beneficial beliefs about difficult experiences, and not by a growth mindset about intelligence or beliefs about the utility of effort. These findings show that beliefs about difficult experiences are a mediating factor in the relationship between grit and persistence. Interventions targeting beliefs about difficult experiences may thus be effective in promoting persistence.
... Despite the theoretical claims about the growth and fixed mindset effects, empirical studies seeking to understand these effects produced mixed findings in various performance domains (e.g., academic achievement and well-being; Sisk et al., 2018;Bui et al., 2023;Burnette et al., 2023;Lou and Li, 2023;Macnamara and Burgoyne, 2023), leaving the empirical examination of the mindset effects an open and inconclusive research question. In the context of creativity, empirical research exploring the mindset effects on creative performance and the expected motivational mechanism has just emerged in recent years (Li et al., 2021;Yeh et al., 2023). ...
... In this connection, it is interesting to note that the mindset effect on performance outcomes is still a debatable issue in the literature. For example, recent meta-analytic studies (Sisk et al., 2018;Macnamara and Burgoyne, 2023) on the effect of growth mindset interventions on academic achievement reported mixed results, suggesting inconclusive findings and causing researchers (e.g., Sisk et al., 2018) to speculate that growth mindset interventions might not be as effective in contributing to academic success as expected by mindset theory (Dweck, 1986(Dweck, , 2016. Macnamara and Burgoyne (2023) also contended that these inconsistent results might be related to bias in study designs and flaws in the research methods employed. ...
... In this connection, it is interesting to note that the mindset effect on performance outcomes is still a debatable issue in the literature. For example, recent meta-analytic studies (Sisk et al., 2018;Macnamara and Burgoyne, 2023) on the effect of growth mindset interventions on academic achievement reported mixed results, suggesting inconclusive findings and causing researchers (e.g., Sisk et al., 2018) to speculate that growth mindset interventions might not be as effective in contributing to academic success as expected by mindset theory (Dweck, 1986(Dweck, , 2016. Macnamara and Burgoyne (2023) also contended that these inconsistent results might be related to bias in study designs and flaws in the research methods employed. ...
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Studies documenting and seeking to understand the mindset effect have yielded mixed and inconclusive findings. The present study sought to address the research question pertaining to the mindset effect on creative thinking and its underlying mechanism from the perspectives of social cognitive theory and mindset theory, which postulate a motivational mechanism underlying the mindset-creativity link. Specifically, this study aimed to examine the mediating role of creativity motivation in the effects of growth and fixed creative mindsets on creative thinking. A convenience sample of 948 college students from three universities in Hong Kong participated in the study. Creative mindset, creativity motivation, and creative thinking were assessed using the Chinese version of the Creative Mindset Scale, the Creativity Motivation Scale, and the Test for Creative Thinking-Drawing Production (TCT–DP), respectively. Lending support to the perspectives of social cognitive and mindset theories, the results of mediation analyses conducted using Preacher and Hayes’s bootstrapping approach indicated that creativity motivation had partial mediating effects on the positive and negative roles of growth and fixed mindsets, respectively, in creative thinking. Enriching the research on the motivation mechanism underlying the impacts of creative mindsets on creative thinking, the results further illustrated that creativity motivation has a stronger mediating effect on the impact of growth creative mindset on creative thinking than on that of fixed creative mindset. The possible theoretical and educational implications of the findings of this research are discussed.
... The results of other studies with students, including meta-analyses with correlational and intervention data, have been less promising when they looked at average effects (e.g., weak effects on achievement for both correlational studies and mindset interventions in the metaanalysis by Sisk et al., 2018; see also Macnamara & Burgoyone, 2023). At the same time, mindset interventions have yielded benefits for specific groups of students (e.g., at-risk students), thus highlighting the importance of heterogeneous effects (see the meta-analysis by Burnette et al., 2023; see also Tipton et al., 2023). ...
... When authors employed a mindset measure where higher scores were indicative of a fixed mindset, we reversed the sign of the correlation coefficient before analyzing the data. This approach is in accordance with previous meta-analyses on mindsets (see also, e.g., Sisk et al., 2018) and allowed us to synthesize a larger number of studies for each relationship. When studies measured mindsets with regard to intelligence, ability, or other factors (e.g., personality or morality), we coded only the correlation for the intelligence or ability measure. ...
... For the moderator dimensionality, the following categories were coded: We documented whether the correlation was recoded (i.e., because the scale assessed a fixed mindset) or not (i.e., only growth mindset items were employed, with larger values indicating greater agreement with the growth mindset statements). The recoding could have taken place in the primary study or for the meta-analysis: Due to our focus on teachers' growth mindset, we recoded correlation coefficients obtained in studies that assessed only a fixed mindset (see also, e.g., Sisk et al., 2018). ...
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The concept of growth mindset—an individual’s beliefs that basic characteristics such as intelligence are malleable—has gained immense popularity in research, the media, and educational practice. Even though it is assumed that teachers need a growth mindset and that both teachers and their students benefit when teachers adopt a growth mindset, systematic syntheses of the potential advantages of a growth mindset in teachers are lacking. Therefore, in this article, we present the first meta-analysis on teachers’ growth mindset and its relationships with multiple outcomes (50 studies, 81 effect sizes; N = 19,555). Multilevel analyses showed a small effect across outcomes. Statistically significant small-to-typical positive associations between teachers’ growth mindset and their motivation in terms of self-efficacy and mastery goals were observed in subgroup analyses. No statistically significant relationships were found with teachers’ performance-approach goals, teachers’ performance-avoidance goals, teachers’ performance on achievement tests, or student achievement. Teachers’ growth mindset was related to instructional practices in terms of mastery goal structures but unrelated to performance goal structures. Moderator analyses indicated that the dimensionality of the mindset measure (recoded from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset measure vs. assessed as a growth mindset), item referent and content of the mindset measure, publication status (published vs. unpublished), world region, educational level, and study quality influenced the strengths of some of the relationships. Overall, our findings extend knowledge about teachers’ mindset and add to the evidence base on teacher characteristics and their links to relevant outcomes.
... A growth mindset, characterized by the belief in the malleability of one's abilities through effort and learning (Dweck, 2006), is not a uniform trait but a dynamic construct influenced by various factors (Yeager & Dweck, 2012). Previous studies have identified possible predictors of growth mindset as the teacher's sociocultural background, prior academic experiences, and instructional practices (Blackwell et al., 2007;Hong, 2013;Sisk et al., 2018). For example, instructional approaches that emphasize effort and learning from mistakes would more likely promote a growth mindset. ...
... Some studies on the effectiveness of growth mindset interventions did not find a significant association between growth mindset and academic achievement (Sisk et al., 2018). However, there is evidence that growth mindset interventions may have some benefit for low socioeconomic students (Claro et al., 2016;Sisk et al., 2018) People will, in challenging situations, tend to invest more effort to improve their situation (Lui et al., 2014). ...
... Some studies on the effectiveness of growth mindset interventions did not find a significant association between growth mindset and academic achievement (Sisk et al., 2018). However, there is evidence that growth mindset interventions may have some benefit for low socioeconomic students (Claro et al., 2016;Sisk et al., 2018) People will, in challenging situations, tend to invest more effort to improve their situation (Lui et al., 2014). Ghana places a strong focus on the education of its youth, recognizing that welltrained teachers are essential to achieving educational goals and national development. ...
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The study aimed to examine the important predictors of Ghanaian classroom Diploma in Basic Education teacher trainees' growth mindset toward student learning. Participants included a purposive sample of 328 (177 male and 151 female) second- and third-year teacher trainees in one college of education in the northern part of Ghana. The predictor variables were the type of program, year in program, age, sex, and marital status. The student learning subscale of the Physical Education and Sports Ability Survey (Sofo et al., 2016) served as the main data source. The items were adapted for the classroom setting. Most of the trainees had a growth mindset but with some fixed ideas for student learning (80.18%). Approximately 19.21% of the trainees had a strong growth mindset in student learning. The mean decreased Gini (MDG) values for the year in the program, program type, and marital status (married vs. single) showed that these predictors were important for student learning. A logistic regression analysis showed that type of program, year in program, and marital status were significant predictors of growth mindset for student learning. Trainees in the early childhood program were approximately seven times more likely to have a growth mindset regarding student learning compared to those in the primary education program. Trainees in their third year were approximately 145 times more likely to have a growth mindset regarding student learning compared to trainees in their second year. Single teacher trainees were approximately 213 times more likely to have a growth mindset regarding student learning compared to married teacher trainees. The study provides insights for teacher educators regarding the profiles and factors that promote the development of a growth mindset in teacher education settings in Ghana
... A growth mindset, characterized by the belief in the malleability of one's abilities through effort and learning (Dweck, 2006), is not a uniform trait but a dynamic construct influenced by various factors (Yeager & Dweck, 2012). Previous studies have identified possible predictors of growth mindset as the teacher's sociocultural background, prior academic experiences, and instructional practices (Blackwell et al., 2007;Hong, 2013;Sisk et al., 2018). For example, instructional approaches that emphasize effort and learning from mistakes would more likely promote a growth mindset. ...
... Some studies on the effectiveness of growth mindset interventions did not find a significant association between growth mindset and academic achievement (Sisk et al., 2018). However, there is evidence that growth mindset interventions may have some benefit for low socioeconomic students (Claro et al., 2016;Sisk et al., 2018) People will, in challenging situations, tend to invest more effort to improve their situation (Lui et al., 2014). ...
... Some studies on the effectiveness of growth mindset interventions did not find a significant association between growth mindset and academic achievement (Sisk et al., 2018). However, there is evidence that growth mindset interventions may have some benefit for low socioeconomic students (Claro et al., 2016;Sisk et al., 2018) People will, in challenging situations, tend to invest more effort to improve their situation (Lui et al., 2014). Ghana places a strong focus on the education of its youth, recognizing that welltrained teachers are essential to achieving educational goals and national development. ...
Article
Full-text available
The study aimed to examine the important predictors of Ghanaian classroom Diploma in Basic Education teacher trainees' growth mindset toward student learning. Participants included a purposive sample of 328 (177 male and 151 female) second-and third-year teacher trainees in one college of education in the northern part of Ghana. The predictor variables were the type of program, year in program, age, sex, and marital status. The student learning subscale of the Physical Education and Sports Ability Survey (Sofo et al., 2016) served as the main data source. The items were adapted for the classroom setting. Most of the trainees had a growth mindset but with some fixed ideas for student learning (80.18%). Approximately 19.21% of the trainees had a strong growth mindset in student learning. The mean decreased Gini (MDG) values for the year in the program, program type, and marital status (married vs. single) showed that these predictors were important for student learning. A logistic regression analysis showed that type of program, year in program, and marital status were significant predictors of growth mindset for student learning. Trainees in the early childhood program were approximately seven times more likely to have a growth mindset regarding student learning compared to those in the primary education program. Trainees in their third year were approximately 145 times more likely to have a growth mindset regarding student learning compared to trainees in their second year. Single teacher trainees were approximately 213 times more likely to have a growth mindset regarding student learning compared to married teacher trainees. The study provides insights for teacher educators regarding the profiles and factors that promote the development of a growth mindset in teacher education settings in Ghana.
... Si bien el rendimiento académico no constituye el único desenlace atado al progreso educativo, sí figura como un indicador de gran relevancia para evaluar el buen funcionamiento del sistema educativo. El panorama académico se encuentra enriquecido por una extensa base de conocimiento que respalda la influencia directa del rendimiento académico en el desarrollo educativo, social y profesional del conjunto estudiantil (Sisk et al., 2018). ...
... La posibilidad de que el profesorado de matemáticas diseñe proyectos y actividades que fomenten una cooperación constructiva entre alumnado de diferentes clases y niveles podría desempeñar un papel relevante en el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje. Además de promover una mayor comprensión y aprecio por la diversidad de enfoques y perspectivas, esta colaboración interclase podría contribuir a mitigar las disparidades académicas que a menudo se manifiestan entre los y las estudiantes, atribuidas a diferencias en capacidades cognitivas o rendimiento académico previo (Sisk et al., 2018). ...
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Este estudio tiene como objetivo examinar las interrelaciones entre la competencia docente percibida por el profesorado de matemáticas de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria, la motivación matemática del alumnado y su rendimiento en esta materia, teniéndose en cuenta las diferencias preexistentes en la inteligencia y rendimiento académico anterior de los y las estudiantes. Se analizaron los datos de 84 docentes y sus 1945 estudiantes. Los análisis de trayectoria multinivel revelaron asociaciones significativas dentro y entre aulas de la competencia docente percibida con la motivación hacia las matemáticas del alumnado y su rendimiento académico.
... Previous research (Destin et al., 2019) on beliefs about intelligence has shown that the association between a fixed mindset and academic performance is similar for both low-and high-SES students. Findings from a meta-analysis (Sisk et al., 2018) also showed that SES was not a significant moderator of the association between intelligence mindset and academic achievement. Collectively, these findings support the "beliefs alone" view that beliefs may be associated with academic outcomes similarly across SES groups. ...
... This effect appears consistent across socioeconomic backgrounds. This finding is in line with previous research on beliefs related to intelligence that found the association between a fixed mindset and academic performance to be similar for low-and high-SES students (Destin et al., 2019;Sisk et al., 2018). ...
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Interest in socioeconomic differences in academic motivation has been longstanding. However, previous research has often treated both low- and high-SES students as homogenous groups. This study aims to address this gap by investigating the developmental trajectory profiles of mathematics motivation during early adolescence, with a focus on variations within and across SES groups. Multigroup latent class growth analysis was used on a sample of 3718 early adolescents in China (initial Mage was 9.40 ± 0.52 years; 48.0% girls) across 2 years from grades 4 through 6. The analysis identified three distinct self-determined mathematics motivation trajectory profiles within each SES group: a good-quality profile (i.e., initially high autonomous but low controlled), a high-quantity profile (i.e., initially high both autonomous and controlled), and a low-quantity profile (i.e., initially low both autonomous and controlled). A greater proportion of low-SES students were observed within the low-quantity profile than within the good-quality profile. The study found that the failure-is-enhancing view was a protective factor against two relatively maladaptive motivational trajectory profiles (i.e., high-quantity profile and low-quantity profile), irrespective of socioeconomic background. These findings emphasize the importance of implementing motivational interventions for early adolescents that consider both structural factors (e.g., socioeconomic backgrounds) and psychological factors (e.g., failure beliefs), to foster students’ academic development.
... Research shows that individuals with a growth mindset are more likely to embrace challenges, practice self-regulation, and focus on mastery-oriented goals (Claro et al., 2016;Rhew et al., 2018). These characteristics are linked to greater resilience, active engagement, and better academic performance (Mueller and Dweck, 1998;Sisk et al., 2018). ...
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Introduction This study explores the relationships among classroom climate, growth mindset, achievement goal orientation, and student engagement in the context of English as a foreign language (EFL) education in China. The study aims to understand how these factors interact to influence student engagement and motivation in EFL learning. Methods Data were collected through a questionnaire administered to 587 Chinese undergraduate EFL students. The questionnaire assessed students’ perceptions of classroom climate, growth mindset, achievement goal orientation, and engagement. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was utilized to examine the relationships among these variables. Results The SEM analysis revealed significant positive correlations among classroom climate, growth mindset, achievement goal orientation, and student engagement. Both classroom climate and growth mindset were found to directly and positively predict student engagement. Additionally, achievement goal orientation mediated the relationships between both classroom climate and student engagement, and between growth mindset and student engagement. Discussion The findings underscore the interconnectedness of classroom climate, growth mindset, and achievement goal orientation in shaping student engagement in EFL education. These results suggest that fostering a positive classroom climate and promoting mastery-oriented goals can enhance student motivation and contribute to more effective language acquisition. Practical implications for EFL educators are also discussed.
... Stress mindsets can simplify and orient individuals to a set of expectations, strategies, and motivations that increase the chance that a person will experience the enhancing effects of stress, especially in performance situations (e.g., exams, university context; Crum et al., 2013Crum et al., , 2017. Although the idea of mindsets is appealing, mindsets research has been criticized recently with respect to effect size (Macnamara & Burgoyne, 2023;Sisk et al., 2018), construct validity (Macnamara & Burgoyne, 2023), and overstating claims of importance for academic performance and wellbeing Macnamara & Burgoyne, 2023;Yan & Schuetze, 2023). Although extant research shows stress mindset functioning in a predictive role (Crum et al., 2013(Crum et al., , 2017Jenkins et al., 2021;Keech et al, 2018), this research did not confirm the predictive capacity of stress mindsets on student success outcomes in academic settings. ...
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University students experience stress from academic demands. Stress is in fact expected in academic settings and important for achieving goals. How students experience the inevitable stress in the academic context, and whether stress is a support or hindrance for them, is related to their beliefs about stress. This study examined two types of beliefs regarding academic stress: (a) perceptions of being capable of coping with academic stress and demands, named coping self-efficacy, and (b) general beliefs regarding stress itself, named stress mindset, and the impact of those two stress beliefs on two types of outcomes related to student success: academic performance (GPA) and student experiences (mental health, perceived motivation challenges). Findings indicate coping self-efficacy positively predicts higher mental health and lower motivation challenges; neither stress mindset nor coping self-efficacy predicted GPA. Coping self-efficacy in the university context, which denotes feeling capable of managing stress and academic demands, emerged as a useful predictor of student success outcomes. As eliminating stress altogether is not practical or possible, this research focuses on beliefs about stress as important for student success.
... Shirvan et al., 2024); these levels clearly surpass that reported in a general education meta-analysis of the link between growth mindset and academic achievement (r = .10; Sisk et al., 2018). This suggests that the influence of growth mindsets on academic achievement may be particularly pronounced within the language learning context. ...
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From a positive psychology perspective, adopting a growth mindset in language learning cultivates positive learning goals and sustains motivational drive. However, the extent to which these motivational benefits translate into tangible language learning outcomes remains controversial. Drawing from the language learning motivational process model, this study investigates the predictive power of growth language mindset on second language (L2) achievement and the mediating role of autonomous motivation and engagement. High-school English language learners in China (n = 486) completed mindset, motivation, and engagement questionnaires, and we retrieved their subsequent English test scores. The results suggested that growth mindset positively, albeit weakly, predicted subsequent L2 achievement (r = .17). Further, autonomous motivation and engagement sequentially mediated the link between growth mindset and L2 achievement. Engagement also acted as an independent mediator (although this was not the case for autonomous motivation). The study provides theoretical insights into the mechanisms through which growth mindset can positively impact L2 learning, and identifies practical pedagogical implications for L2 classrooms.
... That is, mindsets have been linked not only with different aspects of motivational frameworks (e.g., goals, attributions) but also with students' actual achievement. For instance, among students who are facing academic risks, having stronger growth mindsets, or participating in an intervention that promotes growth mindsets, can lead to small but meaningful increases in achievement, including higher grades in school [3,6,18] and higher scores on standardized tests [19][20][21] (for reviews, see [22,23]; cf. [24]). ...
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Beliefs about the malleability of intellectual ability—mindsets—shape achievement. Recent evidence suggests that even young children hold such mindsets; yet, no reliable and valid instruments exist for measuring individual differences in young children’s mindsets. Given the potential relevance of mindsets to children’s achievement-related behavior and learning, we developed and tested the psychometric properties of the Growth Mindset Scale for Children (GM-C). Among other psychometric properties, we assessed this instrument’s (a) factor structure, (b) measurement invariance, (c) internal consistency, (d) temporal stability (test-retest reliability), (e) concurrent validity, and (f) cross-cultural robustness in samples of US children (Study 1; N = 220; ages 4 through 6; 50% girls; 39% White) and South African children (Study 2; predominantly grades 4 and 5; N = 331; 54% girls; 100% non-White). The GM-C scale exhibited four factors, representing beliefs about the instability of low ability, the malleability of low ability, the instability of high ability, and the malleability of high ability. The GM-C scale also demonstrated invariance across age, acceptable internal consistency (αs between .70 to .90), and moderate temporal stability over approximately one month (rs between .38 to .72). Concurrent validity was supported by significant relations between children’s scores on the subscales about low ability and their goal orientations (Studies 1 and 2), challenge-seeking behavior, and achievement in math and English (Study 2). These findings suggest that the GM-C scale is a promising tool for measuring mindsets in young children. We offer practical recommendations for using this new scale and discuss theoretical implications.
... However, the data also suggest that there are positive and negative poles in the impact of online interventions on different groups of students, such as struggling students versus high-achieving students. Moreover, in real educational settings, the inability to strictly control and estimate the influence of covariates makes it challenging to ensure that interventions have the intended impact on participants rather than other mediator variables (Sisk et al., 2018). Easily implementable interventions may not necessarily be easy to develop or widely disseminate. ...
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By virtue of CiteSpace, this study aims to evaluate and pinpoint the status, hot areas, and frontiers of growth-mindset research. Co-authorship analysis, co-citation analysis, co-occurrence analysis, cluster analysis, and content analysis are conducted, based on 543 articles selected from the Social Sciences Citation Index database. Researchers from Australia and countries/territories in North America, East Asia, and Western Europe have maintained relatively closer cooperation with each other. Carol S. Dweck, Jeni L. Burnette, David S. Yeager, and Mary Murphy have high publication volumes and close connections with each other. Angela Duckworth has acted as a bridge among many researchers. Highly co-cited literature has mainly focused on the impacts of mindset and intervention measures. In the past two decades, the literature on mindset research has plunged into numerous hot topics in terms of implicit theory, intelligence, motivation, beliefs, achievements, academic performance, students, transitions, and psychological intervention. Based on burst detection, the field of growth-mindset research shows the following trends: (1) future research must pay more attention to fidelity in intervention studies, conduct rigorous manipulation tests at the statistical level, and improve causal relationship models between growth mindset and other variables and (2) use a multidisciplinary perspective to provide a deeper explanation of the formation mechanism of the growth mindset. Finally, (3) the function mechanisms of the growth mindset in different cultural backgrounds should be strengthened.
... Changing these alternative mindsets might be easier due to their relative specificity and novelty, potentially leading to a more positive impact on children's outcomes. Sisk et al. (2018) reported a counterintuitive finding that mindset interventions targeting students were more effective in improving their achievement when their mindsets were not directly changed by the intervention. This implies that the effects of mindset interventions may either work through different beliefs (e.g., self-efficacy) or by other mechanisms. ...
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A parent-belief intervention designed to improve children’s math motivation was implemented among 509 third and fourth graders and their parents at two elementary schools in Korea, replicating the study of H. J. Lee et al. (2022). A total of 28 classes were randomly assigned to either the intervention (14 classes) or the control condition (14 classes) in a cluster-randomized design. Over 6 consecutive weeks, parents received six intervention letters addressing their mindsets, gender stereotypes, and expectations regarding their child’s future success in math. Using structural equation modeling, we once again documented the intervention’s short-term effects of lowering parents’ gender stereotypes and raising their expectations for their child’s math capabilities. Also consistent with the original observation, the intervention indirectly predicted weaker fixed mindsets of children about their math abilities through heightened parental expectations. Analysis among the subsample that completed a 3-month follow-up survey revealed that the intervention indirectly predicted children’s math self-efficacy and achievement three months after the intervention via its significant direct effects on parents’ fixed mindsets and their indirect associations with children’s fixed mindsets assessed immediately after the intervention. Latent moderated structure modeling further indicated that the parental intervention significantly reduced children’s math test anxiety 3 months postintervention among those with positive parent–child relationships. This study demonstrates the importance of considering parent–child interactions and taking a prolonged perspective when evaluating the efficacy of parent interventions on student outcomes. While the findings are encouraging, discrepancies between the original and present studies highlight the challenges associated with replicating interventions.
... Another example of successful belief-change intervention are so-called growth mindset interventions, which teach the belief that personal abilities, attributes, and traits can change (Burnette et al., 2022). Research in educational contexts showed that student developed the belief that their general intellectual ability is changeable rather than fixed after participating in growth mindset interventions, which subsequently lead to improved academic performance among some students (Burnette et al., 2018;Sisk et al., 2018). ...
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The Enticing world belief factor—encompassing beliefs that the world is interesting, beautiful, abundant, and worth exploring—has been hypothesized to promote subjective well-being and several character strengths (e.g., curiosity). The present pre-registered longitudinal-experimental study tests a 9-day intervention aiming to increase Enticing world belief in 247 high school and university students (aged 14–35). Results show that the intervention increased Enticing world belief from pre to post. However, these changes did not persist at a 2-week follow-up. Although we did not find the predicted positive total effects of the intervention on optimism, life satisfaction, well-being, curiosity or love of learning from pre to post, we did find positive indirect effects on all of these variables via changes in Enticing world belief. We discuss inferential limitations regarding the observed effects as well as possible reasons for the lack of positive total effects on well-being measures and character strengths.
... Nonetheless, as just described, the existence of mediation can be used to support, but not prove causality. Causality is best examined using experimental methods, although attempts to manipulate mindsets have produced mixed results [e.g., 30]. Other ways of examining causality include longitudinal models in which changes in mindsets and well-being are measured across time. ...
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Research on the extent to which people believe that people can change (incremental beliefs) suggests that incrementalist beliefs are positively related to well-being, whereas entity beliefs (people cannot change) are not. One explanation for this relationship is that incremental beliefs are associated with a mastery orientation, whereas entity beliefs are not. If this is the case, then autonomous and competence motives should mediate relationships between incrementalism and well-being because these motives reflect different aspects of mastery. The present study examined the possibility that autonomous and competence motives mediate relationships between self-theories and well-being. Participants were adult community members (n = 428) who completed the Life Engagement Test (eudaimonic well-being), the Satisfaction with life Scale (hedonic well-being), the Mental Health Continuum Scale (eudaimonic, subjective, and psychological well-being), the Basic Needs Satisfaction scale (autonomy, competence, relatedness), and a measure of implicit theories of the self (incremental and entity beliefs). Regression analyses found that incremental beliefs were significantly related (positively) to all three measures of well-being, whereas entity beliefs were not significantly related to well-being. Regression analyses also found that incremental beliefs were positively related to satisfaction of autonomy and competence needs but were not related to satisfaction of relatedness needs. Entity beliefs were not related to the satisfaction of any of the three basic needs. A series of mediational analyses found that competence and autonomy motives mediated relationships between incremental beliefs and all three measures of well-being. In all but one case, satisfaction with life, the direct effects of incremental beliefs on well-being were rendered non-significant when satisfaction of autonomy and competence needs were included as mediators. The present results confirm and extend to the general domain the supposition that a mastery orientation is responsible for relationships between well-being and incremental theories of the self. They also conform the importance of the tenants of Self-Determination Theory in understanding self-theories.
... Research on mindsets to date has primarily focused on how beliefs about the malleability of intelligence relate to academic achievement. Although some studies found null effects (e.g., Li & Bates, 2019) and meta-analytic findings suggest the overall effect sizes to be small (i.e., Sisk et al., 2018), results generally support the notion that growth mindset is associated with better academic performance. The large-scale National Study of Learning Mindsets found growth mindset to be associated with better academic performance for low-achieving students as well as increased enrollment in advanced mathematics courses (Yeager et al., 2019). ...
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Grit, defined as perseverance and passion for pursuing long-term goals, is an important predictor of academic achievement. Whether mindset about talent moderates the relationship between grit and academic achievement has not been tested. Institutional data collected prior to starting at West Point was analyzed using hierarchical multiple regression to assess the predictive power of grit, physical fitness test scores, entrance exam scores, mindset about talent, and the interaction between grit and mindset about talent on first semester and cumulative academic performance for 1140 cadets from the Class of 2019. Hierarchical regression results showed that grit, physical fitness, and entrance exam scores significantly predicted first semester grades, as did the grit by mindset about talent interaction. Regression results predicting cumulative academic performance showed grit and entrance exam scores to be significant predictors, along with the grit by mindset interaction. Although entrance exam scores were the best predictor of both outcomes, simple slope analyses showed that the strongest association between grit and academic performance was observed for cadets with fixed mindsets about talent. Having a fixed mindset about talent moderated the relationship between grit and academic performance at two points in time for West Point cadets.
... Exposure to bullying has been found to reduce adolescent life satisfaction and increase depression, anxiety, and suicidality (Diener, 2000;Schoeler et al., 2018;Pabian et al., 2022) as well as impede classroom learning and academic performance (Luiselli et al., 2005;Ponzo, 2013). Furthermore, several studies have revealed that, compared to students with fixed mindsets, those embracing growth mindsets are more inclined to establish mastery goals that emphasize the learning process and to have heightened self-efficacy, which results in improved academic performance (Costa and Faria, 2018;Sisk et al., 2018;Dweck and Yeager, 2019;Burnette et al., 2020;Lou et al., 2022). ...
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Introduction Adolescent psychological wellbeing has been identified as an important public health priority and one of the major challenges facing young people. However, few studies have examined the wellbeing of Canadian adolescents nationwide in the past decade, and even fewer have focused specifically on immigrant adolescents. This study aims to investigate Canadian adolescent psychological wellbeing (PWB) via nationally representative data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018. We explored what social and educational factors were critical in predicting Canadian adolescents' PWB, how adolescents from immigrant families differed from their non-immigrant peers in their wellbeing, and how adolescents' PWB was related to their academic performance. Methods A total of 22,651 Grade 8 Canadian students who participated PISA 2018 were included in this study (mean age of 15; 49.9% female; 26% immigrant students). Mixed effects modeling was adopted for data analysis. Results Our results showed that various social and educational factors were associated with adolescent PWB, but these relationships varied depending on which aspect of PWB was examined. Immigrant adolescents were shown to have higher levels of PWB when student attitudes toward immigrants were more positive. Additionally, most aspects of PWB were important for achievement performance. Discussion It is important to develop healthy and supportive school and disciplinary climates that foster students' sense of belonging. To further support the PWB of immigrant adolescents, educators can implement activities and integrate learning materials on cultural diversity into curricula, encouraging students to develop positive attitudes toward immigrants. Our findings on the PWB of Canadian adolescents could provide valuable insights for other countries with diverse populations, particularly those with significant immigrant communities.
... Outside of an engineering context, there has been a tremendous amount of work on mindset. An excellent summary of the literature and two meta-analyses can be found in Ref. [8]. In their first meta-analysis (k = 273, N = 365,915), they examined the strength of the relationship between mindset and academic achievement. ...
... Some studies have reported a positive association between a growth mindset and academic achievement (e.g., Blackwell et al., 2007), whereas others have reported no significant positive growth mindset-achievement relations (e.g., Li & Bates, 2019; or even a negative one (e.g., Flanigan et al., 2017). Meta-analyses have also shown that the average strength of the association is relatively weak (r = 0.095 in Burnette et al., 2013; r = 0.07 in Costa & Faria, 2018; r = 0.01 in Sisk et al., 2018). This further suggests a high degree of heterogeneity in the existing research on this topic. ...
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Early adolescence is a critical period for the development of children’s intelligence mindsets, which play a significant role in academic achievement. However, existing research predominantly employs variable-centered approaches, which fail to capture individual differences in mindset–achievement relations. This research addresses this gap by adopting a longitudinal person-centered approach to explore the joint developmental trajectories of growth and fixed mindsets among early adolescents. It further explores how these trajectories relate to changes in academic achievement (i.e., the mean of standardized mathematics and Chinese achievement test scores) over 2 years, accounting for intelligence and sociodemographic factors such as age, sex, and family SES. In two five-wave longitudinal studies with 748 (Mage = 10.23 years, SD = 0.30; 49% girls at T1) and 3258 (Mage = 10.34 years, SD = 0.37; 49% girls at T1) Chinese elementary school students from grades 4 to 6, four distinct mindset trajectory profiles were identified: Growth (initially high growth but low fixed mindsets), Fixed (initially high fixed but low growth mindsets), Moderate (initially moderate levels in both mindsets), and Both-High (initially high levels in both mindsets). Analysis across both studies revealed that students in the Growth trajectory profile exhibited the most significant improvements in academic achievement 2 years later. Conversely, students in the Both-High trajectory profile experienced the least favorable academic outcomes. These findings highlight the importance of recognizing individual differences in mindset trajectories and their potential impact on academic outcomes. The current research underscores the need for educational interventions that are tailored to different mindset profiles to optimize student development and achievement.
... In light of these findings, numerous interventions have been designed to help foster a growth mindset in students * mkpresco@nmsu.edu from school-age to university-level [e.g., 5,7,[12][13][14][15]. However, evidence of their effectiveness has been mixed; some studies show that encouraging a growth mindset improves academic achievement [e.g., [16][17][18][19] while others show much weaker or temporary benefits, in some cases only for certain groups of students [e.g., [20][21][22][23]. This heterogeneity was confirmed by a recent meta-analysis, and it was ascribed to the differing impact of growth mindset interventions depending on what population was being targeted, on how well the intervention was carried out, and on other contextual factors [24]. ...
Preprint
While many previous studies have indicated that encouraging a growth mindset can improve student learning outcomes, this conclusion's applicability to college-level astronomy classrooms remains poorly understood owing to the variation in students' overall and domain-specific learning attitudes. To address this, we surveyed undergraduate students in an introductory astronomy class about their attitudes towards learning astronomy over the course of five semesters. Overall, students felt an affinity for astronomy, felt moderately competent, perceived astronomy to be intermediate in terms of difficulty, and agreed strongly with standard statements reflecting a "growth mindset," i.e., the belief that intelligence is malleable rather than fixed from birth. Their responses were stable over the course of the semester and did not appear to depend strongly on student demographics. The unexpected start of the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated shift to all-virtual learning correlated with a drop in their affinity for astronomy, a small decrease in their perceived competence, and an increase in the perceived difficulty of the topic. Their overall learning mindset showed negligible change during this time, emphasizing the stability of their belief in a growth mindset as compared to other measured learning attitudes. However, more nuanced questions about their behaviors and interpretations in the classroom, about how they felt "in the moment", and about what factors were most important for their success in the class revealed significantly lower alignment with a growth mindset. This suggests that while introductory astronomy students may believe that they have a growth mindset, this mindset is not necessarily reflected in their self-reported classroom behaviors or measured responses to actual learning challenges.
... Implicit theories of intelligence have been the most well-studied domain of implicit theory, albeit with findings on the benefits of promoting incremental theory of intelligence being somewhat inconsistent. While some studies have found that stronger beliefs that intelligence is malleable predict better academic achievement (Blackwell et al., 2007;Claro et al., 2016), other research has found little to no support for the efficacy of interventions designed to promote malleability beliefs in increasing cognitive ability, grittiness, or other precursors of academic achievement Sisk et al., 2018). These mixed results speak to a need to clarify the potential for incremental theory of emotion to promote resilience surrounding mental health. ...
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Purpose Research has identified risk factors for suicide, but resilience factors remain unexplored. Our study examined whether stronger emotion malleability beliefs may protect against suicidal ideation (SI) and/or behaviors. We also examined whether emotion malleability beliefs moderates the relation between SI and suicidal behaviors. Method Participants (n = 514 partial hospital patients) completed the Theories of Emotion Scale that assessed emotion malleability beliefs and Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale interview to measure SI severity and presence of suicidal behaviors. Results Consistent with hypotheses, stronger emotion malleability beliefs was associated with lower levels of past-month SI (β = – .12, p = .009) and lower odds of past-month suicidal behaviors (Exp[B] = 1.06, p = .009). However, these effects were no longer significant when controlling for depressive symptoms (β = – .05, p = .29; Exp[B] = 0.85, p = .11). Unexpectedly, past-month SI was a stronger predictor of past-month suicidal behavior at stronger emotion malleability beliefs (b = .87, p < .001) relative to more moderate (b = .65, p < .001) or weaker beliefs (b = .51, p < .001). Conclusion Emotion malleability beliefs does not predict suicidality beyond depressive symptoms, but paradoxically may increase risk of suicidal thoughts progressing into suicidal behaviors.
... They further emphasized that intervention programs can alter students' mindsets about intelligence, thereby increasing the likelihood of greater L2 performance and achievement (Lou & Noels, 2016). Although several meta-analyses have exhibited weak associations between growth mindset interventions and academic achievement (e.g., Sisk et al., 2018), Lou and Noels (2019) eventually argued that L2 teachers should endorse and cultivate a growth mindset in their classrooms to counteract the detrimental consequences associated with a fixed mindset. By doing so, they sought to empower students to rebound from failures to continue their L2 learning with diligence. ...
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The study aimed to examine the interrelationships between growth mindset, L2 aptitude, L2 grit, and L2 achievement, while also exploring the moderating role of gender in these interactions. A sample of 236 English-major students participated in the study by completing a language aptitude test and a questionnaire. The results of path analyses indicated that both aptitude and L2 grit similarly and positively predicted L2 achievement. The growth mindset had no direct effect on L2 achievement, whereas its indirect effects reached statistical significance. Moreover, growth mindset and L2 grit were found to be unrelated to L2 aptitude. Although female and male students did not differ significantly in their growth mindset, L2 aptitude, L2 grit, and L2 achievement scores, Multi-Group Path Analyses unveiled subtle gender differences.
... Zuilkowski, Jukes, & Dubeck (2016) found that, even when they were determined to succeed, children can become disengaged from school and drop out when they experience low levels of achievement. While previous work from HICs suggest that growth mindset interventions benefit low-SES children most, there was no connection between mindset and academic outcomes in our highly economically-vulnerable sample (Sisk et al., 2018). This result highlights the caution that must be taken when considering the relevance of HIC-based findings in LMICs. ...
... In light of these findings, numerous interventions have been designed to help foster a growth mindset in students from school-age to university-level [5,7,[12][13][14][15]. However, evidence of their effectiveness has been mixed; some studies show that encouraging a growth mindset improves academic achievement [16][17][18][19] while others show much weaker or temporary benefits, in some cases only for certain groups of students [20][21][22][23]. This heterogeneity was confirmed by a recent meta-analysis, and it was ascribed to the differing impact of growth mindset interventions depending on what population was being targeted, on how well the intervention was carried out, and on other contextual factors [24]. ...
Article
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While many previous studies have indicated that encouraging a growth mindset can improve student learning outcomes, this conclusion’s applicability to college-level astronomy classrooms remains poorly understood owing to the variation in students’ overall and domain-specific learning attitudes. To address this, we surveyed undergraduate students in an introductory astronomy class about their attitudes towards learning astronomy over the course of five semesters. Overall, students felt an affinity for astronomy, felt moderately competent, perceived astronomy to be intermediate in terms of difficulty, and agreed strongly with standard statements reflecting a “growth mindset,” i.e., the belief that intelligence is malleable rather than fixed from birth. Their responses were stable over the course of the semester and did not appear to depend strongly on student demographics. The unexpected start of the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated shift to all-virtual learning correlated with a drop in their affinity for astronomy, a small decrease in their perceived competence, and an increase in the perceived difficulty of the topic. Their overall learning mindset showed negligible change during this time, emphasizing the stability of their belief in a growth mindset as compared to other measured learning attitudes. However, more nuanced questions about their behaviors and interpretations in the classroom, about how they felt “in the moment,” and about what factors were most important for their success in the class revealed significantly lower alignment with a growth mindset. This suggests that while introductory astronomy students may believe that they have a growth mindset, this mindset is not necessarily reflected in their self-reported classroom behaviors or measured responses to actual learning challenges. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
... Blackwell et al., 2007;Warren et al., 2019). However, other replications (Li & Bates, 2020) and meta-analyses (Sisk et al., 2018) suggest strong evidence that this does not affect academic outcomes. ...
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Teachers report that disruptive behaviour in their classrooms consumes a significant amount of their time and attention. Research studying disruptive behaviour often focuses on differences between those pupils who meet categorical diagnostic criteria for developmental disorders and those who do not. However, there is much to be learned about disruption from a normative personality approach to individual differences. This study investigates the relationship between personality and disruptive behaviours in 457 pupils between 11 and 16 years old in UK schools. Our analysis focuses on the relationship between self- and teacher-reported disruptive behaviour, and three measures of personality: Empathy, Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory, and Implicit Theories of Intelligence. Disruptive behaviour (measured via both self- and teacher-report) had negative relationships with empathy and incremental learning beliefs. These findings reinforce the importance of understanding disruptive behaviours from a normative individual differences perspective and have implications for research and practice.
Article
Research into growth mindset, the belief that attributes are malleable, has increased dramatically in the last 30 years, leading to an explosion in the number of mindset domains studied. Given this plethora of mindset domains, there is comparatively little work investigating mindset domain relationships. Further, with expanding interest in growth mindset has come an increase in mindset interventions aimed at increasing growth mindset beliefs, with mixed results. The mindset domain used in intervention messaging is an understudied potential moderator of intervention efficacy, as few domains have been used in interventions, despite the number of domains studied. In this article we raise three questions: (1) How many mindset domains have been studied and what are those domains?; (2) How are beliefs in different mindset domains related to one another?; and (3) How can we use information about existing mindset domains and their relationships to improve mindset intervention efficacy? To address question one, we systematically reviewed the mindset literature between 1995 and 2022 to document studied mindset domains. We then discuss heterogeneity in mindset domain relationship research and suggest how our review can be used to address gaps in this field. Lastly, we describe heterogeneity in mindset intervention efficacy and suggest how to apply our review of mindset domains to examine the impact of the domain used in intervention messaging on efficacy. We aim to stimulate research into understanding mindset domain relationships and how this insight may be applied to mindset interventions to improve people's lives through effectively enhancing their growth mindset beliefs.
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Students' performance in academic courses highlights the curriculum's development of knowledge and abilities, which is a crucial sign of academic success. The goal of the study is to determine how growth mindset affects students' academic performance in terms of engagement, skill development, information acquisition, and resilience. The purpose of this study is to emphasize the influence on Australian primary and secondary school students (K-12) aged 5-18 years, given the significance of this growth mindset on academic performance. In this study, the content analysis technique is used from 10 different studies and it is identified that there was no discernible growth mindset mediating effect in the relationship between reading achievement and formative assessment approaches. This study makes two different literary contributions. First of all, it links two related study streams: attitude and formative evaluation. This study has demonstrated that the connection between these two strands might lead to enhanced synergy between exterior educational approaches and internal psychological processes.
Article
This study contains three goals toward understanding mindset theory in surgical education: understanding surgical faculty mindset, understanding surgical resident mindset and its relationship to behavior, and the relationship of mindset and behavior to challenging surgical task performance. The department of surgery faculty and residents at a single, university-based institution were surveyed. Mindsets were assessed with a modified version of the Implicit Theories of Intelligence Scale. Resident behavior and beliefs were evaluated using a novel series of questions. Junior surgical residents from a single, university-based institution were recruited for the task performance assessment. Task performance was measured by a unique curriculum of nine tasks on the SimNow robotic simulator. Surveys were distributed via Qualtrics. Data were analyzed with STATA. The faculty survey achieved a response rate of 53% (53/100). 89% of faculty endorsed a growth mindset toward surgical skill. The resident survey achieved a response rate of 38% (46/121). 89% of respondents endorsed beliefs consistent with a growth mindset orientation. 78% of respondents had a behavior score with a growth-mindset orientation. Ordinary least squares regression demonstrated a significant, positive association between resident mindset score and behavior score (β = 0.31, p = 0.001), indicating that as residents more strongly endorsed beliefs consistent with the malleability of surgical skill, they were more likely to self-report actions and behaviors consistent with a growth-mindset orientation. Sixteen residents participated in the task performance assessment. 100% of the residents endorsed a growth mindset toward surgical skill and 87.5% of residents had a behavior score with a growth-mindset orientation. The behavior score was significantly lower than the mindset score (p < 0.001). Importance of improving surgical skill and level of skill practice after failure (questions 5 and 9) were the most discriminating between participants. The most difficult tasks (8 and 9) were the most discriminating between participants. There was no significant relationship between average total task score and mindset score (p = 0.48). There was a significant, positive relationship between importance of improving surgical skill and task 8 score (p = 0.017, y = 17.7x–2.6) and task 8 score and level of practice after failure (p = 0.05, y = 15.3x + 15.2). The majority of faculty and residents indicated a growth mindset toward surgical skill. However, there was a discrepancy between the extent of resident growth mindset endorsement and the actual reported behaviors. This suggests that the residents may hold somewhat aspirational beliefs regarding mindset, and that the surgical training environment may require a more specialized mindset assessment tool. We identified a significant, positive relationship between mindset score and self-reported behaviors. We found the most discriminating behavior questions to be related to certain task performance metrics, suggesting that there is a positive relationship between behaviors with a growth-mindset orientation and task performance.
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Although positive emotions are widely considered one of the crucial factors affecting individual academic performance, few studies have explored how such effects are mediated by other metacognition and motivational factors in self-regulated learning, taking into account certain cultural-educational contexts. Therefore, this study attempted to investigate the interrelationships among Chinese students’ reading enjoyment, metacognition, approach achievement goals, growth mindset, and reading achievement based on the PISA 2018 dataset. Research findings revealed that (i) reading enjoyment, metacognition, approach achievement goals and growth mindset could positively predict reading performance, but the correlation between a growth mindset and reading enjoyment was negative among Chinese students; (ii) reading enjoyment affects reading performance directly and indirectly, and the indirect influence was mediated by students’ metacognition, approach achievement goals, and growth mindset. This study validates a multiple-parallel mediation model to associate positive emotion and reading achievement via self-regulation. The findings provide implications for enhancing students’ motivation in learning and emotional well-being in Confucian countries.
Conference Paper
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The increasing importance of programming skills for various professions highlights the necessity of laying solid foundations for these skills in school. One critical step when learning programming is code tracing, i.e., the ability to analyze program code to predict the data changes when the code is executed. Considering the diverse levels of prior knowledge in computer science classes, it is essential to implement tailored teaching approaches, which can enhance the respective learning outcomes. To create personalized learning paths, we developed the tutoring system Feedback Buddy that teaches if-else branches, for loops, and combinations of them using tracing tables. Thereby, the Feedback Buddy adapts its feedback and task difficulty based on learners’ affective, cognitive, and metacognitive states. Extending former systems, our approach focuses on school education and uses 𝑡h growth mindset feedback. Evaluation with 10 positive results, affirming the usability and usefullness of the Feedback Buddy in secondary school education.
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Background Teachers as delivery agents within school-based mindset programmes is a potential intervention strategy for improving pupils’ outcomes. The Mindset Teams programme, utilises teachers as delivery agents, with an aim to improve learning resilience for health and attainment outcomes among schools in Scotland. This study examined the perceived impacts of the programme to develop a programme theory of change and refine an earlier co-produced logic model. Methods Across six intervention schools, one-to-one interviews were conducted with teachers (N = 18) and focus groups were conducted with 23 pupils aged 8-11-years. Fourteen stakeholders involved in programme provision, secondary school delivery, funding decisions or policy-related areas also participated in a one-to-one interview. Qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis with a combined deductive and inductive coding approach. Results Themes were identified in relation to impacts on teachers (five themes), pupils (eight themes), and broader outcomes (two themes), with most themes discussed by teachers and wider stakeholders. Across data, findings highlighted the proposed mechanisms by which the programme was intending to produce impacts, largely through increasing teacher knowledge and facilitating a positive school environment. Themes demonstrated the breadth of perceived programme impacts, highlighting both attainment and wellbeing outcomes among pupils. Conclusions Findings provide support for Mindset programmes focusing on the development of teachers’ mindsets, highlighting the resultant perceived impacts this can have on both teachers and pupils alike. Future research should seek to capture health and wellbeing measures alongside attainment data to fully explore programme impacts.
Article
This study leverages positive psychology (PP) to explore the reciprocal relationships among foreign language enjoyment (FLE), ideal L2 self, and grit in English major learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). It further examines the potential for growth mindset to predict these constructs over time. Employing a cross-lagged panel design, the research investigates these relationships among 903 EFL learners in Iran, assessed at two time points. Structural equation modeling (SEM) is utilized to analyse the hypothesized reciprocal and predictive effects. The findings reveal a significant lagged effect of ideal L2 self on both FLE and grit, suggesting that a stronger ideal L2 self at the initial assessment predicts higher levels of FLE and grit at the subsequent time point. Additionally, growth mindset exhibits a significant influence on all three constructs, but only at the first assessment point. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the motivational dynamics underlying EFL learning success and highlight the potential benefits of fostering a growth mindset and a strong ideal L2 self among learners.
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The intention of this study was to report on the progress of students admitted through the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) for the academic year 2019 and 2020 at the Namibian College of Open Learning (NAMCOL). The experience of students admitted through RPL seems under researched, given the number of limited studies undertaken at Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) offering Open and Distance Learning (ODL). The study aimed to explore the progress of students admitted to certificate programmes offered by NAMCOL through RPL. This study used Abraham Maslow’s Need Theory as a theoretical framework. The research followed a qualitative research method. A descriptive research design was employed for the study. The population comprised certificate students admitted through RPL during the 2019 and 2020 academic years. Purposeful sampling technique which comprised a sample of 30 students was used. Data were collected through a structured interview guide. Students ‘academic records were reviewed to determine their progress. Data were analysed and presented thematically. Main outcomes of the study showed that several factors affect students’ performance positively and negatively. Factors contributing positively include the delivery of face-to-face contact sessions and discussions with other students. Aspects contributing negatively to the academic success of students include distance, work, and family responsibilities. The study, therefore, recommends that more face-to-face contact sessions should be made available to students. These could be offered online synchronously or asynchronously to enable students to play and review sessions on their own time.
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Mindset is a construct of interest for challenging learning environments, as science courses often are, in that, it has implications for behavioral responses to academic challenges. Previous work examining mindset in science learning contexts has been primarily quantitative in nature, limiting the theoretical basis for mindset perspectives specific to science domains. A few studies in physics education research have revealed domain-specific complexities applying to the mindset construct that suggest a need to explore undergraduate perspectives on mindset within each science domain. Here we present a multiple case study examining chemistry-specific mindset beliefs of students enrolled in general and organic chemistry lecture courses. A between-case analysis is used to describe six unique perspectives on chemistry mindset beliefs. This analysis revealed that students’ beliefs about their own ability to improve in chemistry intelligence or regarding chemistry-specific cognitive abilities did not consistently match their views on the potential for change for other students in chemistry. The nature of the abilities themselves (whether they were naturally occurring or developed with effort), and the presence of a natural inclination toward chemistry learning were observed to play a role in students’ perspectives. The findings from this analysis are used to propose a more complex model for chemistry-specific mindset beliefs to inform future work.
Article
The purpose of this study is to examine the predictive power of students’ patience on the sub-dimensions of interpersonal patience and long-term patience and short-term patience; the growth mindset and its sub-dimensions of procrastination, belief in invariance, effort and belief in development. The study group of the research consists of 7426 students who are studying in different geographical regions of Türkiye. They were picked for the study by using the progressive sampling method. “Patience Scale” and “Growth Mindset Scale” were used for data collection. In the study, the relationship between the independent variable and the dependent variable was tested by Pearson product moment correlation coefficient analysis method and the predictive power of independent variables on the dependent variable was tested by multiple regression analysis method. According to the results, the long-term patience and then the interpersonal patience sub-dimension of students’ patience predicts the variability in the procrastination and belief in invariance dimension of their growth mindsets. The long-term patience and then the interpersonal patience sub-dimension of the patience of them predict the variability in the effort and belief in invariance sub-dimension of the developmental traits. It statistically significantly predicts the variability of patience of them in growth mindsets. One of the suggestions developed within the scope of the research findings is to investigate the reasons why the short-term patience dimension does not predict the growth mindset like the other dimensions.
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Growth mindset (GM) theory conceptualizes that one's ability can be improved with effort (Dweck, 1999) from a social-cognitive perspective. Self-determination theory (SDT) emphasizes the motivational source of learning, i.e. autonomous motivation (AM) and controlled motivation (CM). The two motivational theories can both lead to strategy use (SU) in writing contexts. To provide a more comprehensive understanding of motivation, this study investigated GM, AM, CM and SU through an integrated writing task. Participants were 465 secondary-four students in Hong Kong. Structural equation modelling showed that GM indirectly promoted writing performance through the mediation of AM and SU. Besides, neither motivations exerted direct effect on writing performance, whereas both did so via the mediation of SU. The findings unveiled the importance of GM in Hong Kong secondary school students' writing performance since it contributed to AM and SU. Regarding peda-gogical implications, we encourage the proliferation of GM in everyday classroom.
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Individual differences in personal belief in a just world (PBJW) and growth mindset can predict people’s emotions and actions when faced with difficulties, but little is known about how the two attributes influence each other during adolescence. This study analyzed the longitudinal trajectories of PBJW and growth mindset scores and the bidirectional longitudinal associations between them with structural equation modeling. Chinese adolescents (N = 10,350, Mage = 16.62, SD = 0.81, 62.2% males, at Wave 1) completed self-report questionnaires on three occasions over 3 academic years. The results of latent growth models (LGMs) indicate that both PBJW and growth mindset scores increased linearly over the study period. In the cross-lagged panel models (CLPMs), a bidirectional interaction between PBJW and growth mindset scores was detected. In the random intercept cross-lagged panel models (RI-CLPMs), the results suggest that being treated more fairly reinforced individuals’ belief in the malleability of personal abilities at the within-person level, but not vice versa. Overall, the effect of PBJW on growth mindset scores was robust, whereas the effect of growth mindset scores on PBJW was only present at the between-person level. These results provide evidence of an interaction between PBJW and a growth mindset, and highlight the need to distinguish between- and within-person effects.
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Purpose Informed by the job characteristics model (JCM) and job crafting theory (JCT), this study aims to investigate the mediating role of meaningfulness at work in the relationship between a growth mindset and in-role performance and moderating role of job crafting in this indirect effect. Design/methodology/approach To this end, the authors examined the moderated mediation model with 271 corporate trainers enrolled in the largest online community for adult educators in South Korea. Findings Results showed that the relationship between a growth mindset and in-role performance is positively mediated by meaningfulness at work. Furthermore, job crafting acted as a moderator in this relationship, such that trainers with high levels of job crafting showed a greater in-role performance, while trainers with low levels of job crafting reported a negative indirect effect of a growth mindset. Originality/value The current study contributes to the JCM and JCT by suggesting a growth mindset as individual characteristics to promote meaningfulness at work and in-role performance. The study also responds to the calls to expand the mediation mechanisms and boundary conditions of a growth mindset in the workplace. The authors provide important insights into how corporate trainers’ job crafting is crucial in enhancing or impeding their performance and meaningful work.
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Consisting of three logically aligned sub-studies, the current research explored the features and mechanisms involved in aligning mindsets and pedagogies among teachers in upper-secondary education. In Study 1, 114 teachers participated in a two-round questionnaire survey investigating the descriptive characteristics of mindset and pedagogy. Two groups of teachers (N = 12) were semi-structure-interviewed in Study 2 to explore how these features were reflected in their teaching. Study 3 (N = 46) comprised focus-group interviews identifying the underlying mechanism determining which and how situational factors moderate the correspondence between mindset and pedagogy. Results indicated that teachers in upper secondary education endorsed mixed pedagogies despite their mindsets. The mixing style was characterized by both process-focused and trait-focused pedagogical thinking, and both mastery-oriented and performance-oriented pedagogical practices, with variable persistence and differential instructions. Situations related to cultural orientation, educational system, social atmosphere and individual experiences moderated the alignment of mindset with the corresponding pedagogy. The results offer insights into how to validate mindset interventions concerning the adjustment of situations to educational surroundings.
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Because of overwhelming evidence of publication bias in psychology, techniques to correct meta-analytic estimates for such bias are greatly needed. The methodology on which the p-uniform and p-curve methods are based has great promise for providing accurate meta-analytic estimates in the presence of publication bias. However, in this article, we show that in some situations, p-curve behaves erratically, whereas p-uniform may yield implausible estimates of negative effect size. Moreover, we show that (and explain why) p-curve and p-uniform result in overestimation of effect size under moderate-to-large heterogeneity and may yield unpredictable bias when researchers employ p-hacking. We offer hands-on recommendations on applying and interpreting results of meta-analyses in general and p-uniform and p-curve in particular. Both methods as well as traditional methods are applied to a meta-analysis on the effect of weight on judgments of importance. We offer guidance for applying p-uniform or p-curve using R and a user-friendly web application for applying p-uniform.
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It has been claimed that working memory training programs produce diverse beneficial effects. This article presents a meta-analysis of working memory training studies (with a pretest-posttest design and a control group) that have examined transfer to other measures (nonverbal ability, verbal ability, word decoding, reading comprehension, or arithmetic; 87 publications with 145 experimental comparisons). Immediately following training there were reliable improvements on measures of intermediate transfer (verbal and visuospatial working memory). For measures of far transfer (nonverbal ability, verbal ability, word decoding, reading comprehension, arithmetic) there was no convincing evidence of any reliable improvements when working memory training was compared with a treated control condition. Furthermore, mediation analyses indicated that across studies, the degree of improvement on working memory measures was not related to the magnitude of far-transfer effects found. Finally, analysis of publication bias shows that there is no evidential value from the studies of working memory training using treated controls. The authors conclude that working memory training programs appear to produce short-term, specific training effects that do not generalize to measures of “real-world” cognitive skills. These results seriously question the practical and theoretical importance of current computerized working memory programs as methods of training working memory skills.
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Background. The p-curve is a plot of the distribution of p-values reported in a set of scientific studies. Comparisons between ranges of p-values have been used to evaluate fields of research in terms of the extent to which studies have genuine evidential value, and the extent to which they suffer from bias in the selection of variables and analyses for publication, p-hacking. Methods. p-hacking can take various forms. Here we used R code to simulate the use of ghost variables, where an experimenter gathers data on several dependent variables but reports only those with statistically significant effects. We also examined a text-mined dataset used by Head et al. (2015) and assessed its suitability for investigating p-hacking. Results. We show that when there is ghost p-hacking, the shape of the p-curve depends on whether dependent variables are intercorrelated. For uncorrelated variables, simulated p-hacked data do not give the “p-hacking bump” just below .05 that is regarded as evidence of p-hacking, though there is a negative skew when simulated variables are inter-correlated. The way p-curves vary according to features of underlying data poses problems when automated text mining is used to detect p-values in heterogeneous sets of published papers. Conclusions. The absence of a bump in the p-curve is not indicative of lack of p-hacking. Furthermore, while studies with evidential value will usually generate a right-skewed p-curve, we cannot treat a right-skewed p-curve as an indicator of the extent of evidential value, unless we have a model specific to the type of p-values entered into the analysis. We conclude that it is not feasible to use the p-curve to estimate the extent of p-hacking and evidential value unless there is considerable control over the type of data entered into the analysis. In particular, p-hacking with ghost variables is likely to be missed.
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Systematic reviews and meta-analyses have become increasingly important in health care. Clinicians read them to keep up to date with their field [1],[2], and they are often used as a starting point for developing clinical practice guidelines. Granting agencies may require a systematic review to ensure there is justification for further research [3], and some health care journals are moving in this direction [4]. As with all research, the value of a systematic review depends on what was done, what was found, and the clarity of reporting. As with other publications, the reporting quality of systematic reviews varies, limiting readers' ability to assess the strengths and weaknesses of those reviews. Several early studies evaluated the quality of review reports. In 1987, Mulrow examined 50 review articles published in four leading medical journals in 1985 and 1986 and found that none met all eight explicit scientific criteria, such as a quality assessment of included studies [5]. In 1987, Sacks and colleagues [6] evaluated the adequacy of reporting of 83 meta-analyses on 23 characteristics in six domains. Reporting was generally poor; between one and 14 characteristics were adequately reported (mean = 7.7; standard deviation = 2.7). A 1996 update of this study found little improvement [7]. In 1996, to address the suboptimal reporting of meta-analyses, an international group developed a guidance called the QUOROM Statement (QUality Of Reporting Of Meta-analyses), which focused on the reporting of meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials [8]. In this article, we summarize a revision of these guidelines, renamed PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses), which have been updated to address several conceptual and practical advances in the science of systematic reviews (Box 1). Box 1: Conceptual Issues in the Evolution from QUOROM to PRISMA Completing a Systematic Review Is an Iterative Process The conduct of a systematic review depends heavily on the scope and quality of included studies: thus systematic reviewers may need to modify their original review protocol during its conduct. Any systematic review reporting guideline should recommend that such changes can be reported and explained without suggesting that they are inappropriate. The PRISMA Statement (Items 5, 11, 16, and 23) acknowledges this iterative process. Aside from Cochrane reviews, all of which should have a protocol, only about 10% of systematic reviewers report working from a protocol [22]. Without a protocol that is publicly accessible, it is difficult to judge between appropriate and inappropriate modifications.
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BACKGROUND Mental health disorders and self-assessed mental health problems are common among students in tertiary education in Western countries. On average, one in three university students suffer from depressive symptoms and more female students are affected than males. Student mental health services are relevant settings for promoting mental health and preventing mental ill-health through interventions at the organizational-, group-and individual levels. However, student's problems differ across campuses and many intervention programs and policies are not based on the best available evidence. More over, sound interventions may remain without effect unless they are thoroughly implemented.
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Many theories about the role of the environment in raising IQ have been put forward. There has not been an equal effort, however, in experimentally testing these theories. In this paper, we test whether the role of the environment in raising IQ is bidirectional/reciprocal. We meta-analyze the evidence for the fadeout effect of IQ, determining whether interventions that raise IQ have sustained effects after they end. We analyze 7584 participants across 39 randomized controlled trials, using a mixed-effects analysis with growth curve modeling. We confirm that after an intervention raises intelligence the effects fade away. We further show this is because children in the experimental group lose their IQ advantage and not because those in the control groups catch up. These findings are inconsistent with a bidirectional/reciprocal model of interaction. We discuss explanations for the fadeout effect and posit a unidirectional-reactive model for the role of the environment in the development of intelligence.
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The efficacy of academic-mind-set interventions has been demonstrated by small-scale, proof-of-concept interventions, generally delivered in person in one school at a time. Whether this approach could be a practical way to raise school achievement on a large scale remains unknown. We therefore delivered brief growth-mind-set and sense-of-purpose interventions through online modules to 1,594 students in 13 geographically diverse high schools. Both interventions were intended to help students persist when they experienced academic difficulty; thus, both were predicted to be most beneficial for poorly performing students. This was the case. Among students at risk of dropping out of high school (one third of the sample), each intervention raised students' semester grade point averages in core academic courses and increased the rate at which students performed satisfactorily in core courses by 6.4 percentage points. We discuss implications for the pipeline from theory to practice and for education reform. © The Author(s) 2015.
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Carefully devised and delivered psychological interventions catalyze the effects of high-quality educational reforms, but don't replace them.
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Because challenges are ubiquitous, resilience is essential for success in school and in life. In this article we review research demonstrating the impact of students’ mindsets on their resilience in the face of academic and social challenges. We show that students who believe (or are taught) that intellectual abilities are qualities that can be developed (as opposed to qualities that are fixed) tend to show higher achievement across challenging school transitions and greater course completion rates in challenging math courses. New research also shows that believing (or being taught) that social attributes can be developed can lower adolescents’ aggression and stress in response to peer victimization or exclusion, and result in enhanced school performance. We conclude by discussing why psychological interventions that change students’ mindsets are effective and what educators can do to foster these mindsets and create resilience in educational settings.
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Adolescents face many academic and emotional challenges in middle school, but notable differences are evident in how well they adapt. What predicts adolescents' academic and emotional outcomes during this period? One important factor might be adolescents' implicit theories about whether intelligence and emotions can change. The current study examines how these theories affect academic and emotional outcomes. One hundred fifteen students completed surveys throughout middle school, and their grades and course selections were obtained from school records. Students who believed that intelligence could be developed earned higher grades and were more likely to move to advanced math courses over time. Students who believed that emotions could be controlled reported fewer depressive symptoms and, if they began middle school with lower well-being, were more likely to feel better over time. These findings illustrate the power of adolescents' implicit theories, suggesting exciting new pathways for intervention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).
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In Methods of Randomization in Experimental Design, author Valentim R. Alferes presents the main procedures of random assignment and local control in between-subjects experimental designs and the counterbalancing schemes in within-subjects or cross-over experimental designs. Alferes uses a pedagogical strategy that allows the reader to implement all randomization methods by relying on the materials given in the appendices and using common features included in most word processor software. A companion website at www.sagepub.com/alferes provides downloadable IBM SPSS and R versions of SCRAED, a package that performs simple and complex random assignment in experimental design, including the 18 randomization methods presented in Chapters 2 and 3.
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Recent randomized experiments have found that seemingly “small” social-psychological interventions in education—that is, brief exercises that target students’ thoughts, feelings, and beliefs in and about school—can lead to large gains in student achievement and sharply reduce achievement gaps even months and years later. These interventions do not teach students academic content but instead target students’ psychology, such as their beliefs that they have the potential to improve their intelligence or that they belong and are valued in school. When social-psychological interventions have lasting effects, it can seem surprising and even “magical,” leading people either to think of them as quick fixes to complicated problems or to consider them unworthy of serious consideration. The present article discourages both responses. It reviews the theoretical basis of several prominent social-psychological interventions and emphasizes that they have lasting effects because they target students’ subjective experiences in school, because they use persuasive yet stealthy methods for conveying psychological ideas, and because they tap into recursive processes present in educational environments. By understanding psychological interventions as powerful but context-dependent tools, educational researchers will be better equipped to take them to scale. This review concludes by discussing challenges to scaling psychological interventions and how these challenges may be overcome.
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Because scientists tend to report only studies (publication bias) or analyses (p-hacking) that “work,” readers must ask, “Are these effects true, or do they merely reflect selective reporting?” We introduce p-curve as a way to answer this question. P-curve is the distribution of statistically significant p values for a set of studies (ps < .05). Because only true effects are expected to generate right-skewed p-curves—containing more low (.01s) than high (.04s) significant p values—only right-skewed p-curves are diagnostic of evidential value. By telling us whether we can rule out selective reporting as the sole explanation for a set of findings, p-curve offers a solution to the age-old inferential problems caused by file-drawers of failed studies and analyses.
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In meta-analysis, it is common to have dependent effect sizes, such as several effect sizes from the same sample but measured at different times. Cheung and Chan proposed the adjusted-individual and adjusted-weighted procedures to estimate the degree of dependence and incorporate this estimate in the meta-analysis. The present study extends the previous study by examining the case of heterogeneous degree of dependence. Simulation results reveal that these two procedures again generated less biased estimates of the degree of heterogeneity than the commonly used samplewise procedure and were statistically more powerful to detect true variations. In addition, the adjusted-weighted procedure generated slightly less biased estimates of the degree of heterogeneity than the adjusted-individual weighted procedure across conditions. Future directions to further refine these procedures are discussed.
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Debates about human nature often revolve around what is built in. However, the hallmark of human nature is how much of a person's identity is not built in; rather, it is humans' great capacity to adapt, change, and grow. This nature versus nurture debate matters-not only to students of human nature-but to everyone. It matters whether people believe that their core qualities are fixed by nature (an entity theory, or fixed mindset) or whether they believe that their qualities can be developed (an incremental theory, or growth mindset). In this article, I show that an emphasis on growth not only increases intellectual achievement but can also advance conflict resolution between long-standing adversaries, decrease even chronic aggression, foster cross-race relations, and enhance willpower. I close by returning to human nature and considering how it is best conceptualized and studied. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).
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In many studies included in meta-analyses, the independent variable measure, the dependent variable measure, or both, have been artificially dichotomized, attenuating the correlation from its true value and resulting in (a) a downward distortion in the mean correlation and (b) an upward distortion in the apparent real variation of correlations across studies. We present (a) exact corrections for this distortion for the case in which only one of the variables has been dichotomized and (b) methods for making approximate corrections when both variables have been artificially dichotomized. These approximate corrections are shown to be quite accurate for most research data. Methods for weighting the resulting corrected correlations in meta-analysis are presented. These corrections make it possible for meta-analysis to yield approximately unbiased estimates of mean population correlations and their standard deviations despite the initial distortion in the correlations from individual studies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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For any given research area, one cannot tell how many studies have been conducted but never reported. The extreme view of the "file drawer problem" is that journals are filled with the 5% of the studies that show Type I errors, while the file drawers are filled with the 95% of the studies that show nonsignificant results. Quantitative procedures for computing the tolerance for filed and future null results are reported and illustrated, and the implications are discussed. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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Funnel plots, and tests for funnel plot asymmetry, have been widely used to examine bias in the results of meta-analyses. Funnel plot asymmetry should not be equated with publication bias, because it has a number of other possible causes. This article describes how to interpret funnel plot asymmetry, recommends appropriate tests, and explains the implications for choice of meta-analysis modelThe 1997 paper describing the test for funnel plot asymmetry proposed by Egger et al 1 is one of the most cited articles in the history of BMJ.1 Despite the recommendations contained in this and subsequent papers,2 3 funnel plot asymmetry is often, wrongly, equated with publication or other reporting biases. The use and appropriate interpretation of funnel plots and tests for funnel plot asymmetry have been controversial because of questions about statistical validity,4 disputes over appropriate interpretation,3 5 6 and low power of the tests.2This article recommends how to examine and interpret funnel plot asymmetry (also known as small study effects2) in meta-analyses of randomised controlled trials. The recommendations are based on a detailed MEDLINE review of literature published up to 2007 and discussions among methodologists, who extended and adapted guidance previously summarised in the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions.7What is a funnel plot?A funnel plot is a scatter plot of the effect estimates from individual studies against some measure of each study’s size or precision. The standard error of the effect estimate is often chosen as the measure of study size and plotted on the vertical axis8 with a reversed scale that places the larger, most powerful studies towards the top. The effect estimates from smaller studies should scatter more widely at the bottom, with the spread narrowing among larger studies.9 In the absence of bias and between study heterogeneity, the scatter will be due to sampling variation alone and the plot will resemble a symmetrical inverted funnel (fig 1⇓). A triangle centred on a fixed effect summary estimate and extending 1.96 standard errors either side will include about 95% of studies if no bias is present and the fixed effect assumption (that the true treatment effect is the same in each study) is valid. The appendix on bmj.com discusses choice of axis in funnel plots.View larger version:In a new windowDownload as PowerPoint SlideFig 1 Example of symmetrical funnel plot. The outer dashed lines indicate the triangular region within which 95% of studies are expected to lie in the absence of both biases and heterogeneity (fixed effect summary log odds ratio±1.96×standard error of summary log odds ratio). The solid vertical line corresponds to no intervention effectImplications of heterogeneity, reporting bias, and chance Heterogeneity, reporting bias, and chance may all lead to asymmetry or other shapes in funnel plots (box). Funnel plot asymmetry may also be an artefact of the choice of statistics being plotted (see appendix). The presence of any shape in a funnel plot is contingent on the studies having a range of standard errors, since otherwise they would lie on a horizontal line.Box 1: Possible sources of asymmetry in funnel plots (adapted from Egger et al1)Reporting biasesPublication bias: Delayed publication (also known as time lag or pipeline) bias Location biases (eg, language bias, citation bias, multiple publication bias)Selective outcome reportingSelective analysis reportingPoor methodological quality leading to spuriously inflated effects in smaller studiesPoor methodological designInadequate analysisFraudTrue heterogeneitySize of effect differs according to study size (eg, because of differences in the intensity of interventions or in underlying risk between studies of different sizes)ArtefactualIn some circumstances, sampling variation can lead to an association between the intervention effect and its standard errorChanceAsymmetry may occur by chance, which motivates the use of asymmetry testsHeterogeneityStatistical heterogeneity refers to differences between study results beyond those attributable to chance. It may arise because of clinical differences between studies (for example, setting, types of participants, or implementation of the intervention) or methodological differences (such as extent of control over bias). A random effects model is often used to incorporate heterogeneity in meta-analyses. If the heterogeneity fits with the assumptions of this model, a funnel plot will be symmetrical but with additional horizontal scatter. If heterogeneity is large it may overwhelm the sampling error, so that the plot appears cylindrical.Heterogeneity will lead to funnel plot asymmetry if it induces a correlation between study sizes and intervention effects.5 For example, substantial benefit may be seen only in high risk patients, and these may be preferentially included in early, small studies.10 Or the intervention may have been implemented less thoroughly in larger studies, resulting in smaller effect estimates compared with smaller studies.11Figure 2⇓ shows funnel plot asymmetry arising from heterogeneity that is due entirely to there being three distinct subgroups of studies, each with a different intervention effect.12 The separate funnels for each subgroup are symmetrical. Unfortunately, in practice, important sources of heterogeneity are often unknown.View larger version:In a new windowDownload as PowerPoint SlideFig 2 Illustration of funnel plot asymmetry due to heterogeneity, in the form of three distinct subgroups of studies. Funnel plot including all studies (top left) shows clear asymmetry (P<0.001 from Egger test for funnel plot asymmetry). P values for each subgroup are all >0.49.Differences in methodological quality may also cause heterogeneity and lead to funnel plot asymmetry. Smaller studies tend to be conducted and analysed with less methodological rigour than larger studies,13 and trials of lower quality also tend to show larger intervention effects.14 15Reporting biasReporting biases arise when the dissemination of research findings is influenced by the nature and direction of results. Statistically significant “positive” results are more likely to be published, published rapidly, published in English, published more than once, published in high impact journals, and cited by others.16 17 18 19 Data that would lead to negative results may be filtered, manipulated, or presented in such a way that they become positive.14 20 Reporting biases can have three types of consequence for a meta-analysis:A systematic review may fail to locate an eligible study because all information about it is suppressed or hard to find (publication bias) A located study may not provide usable data for the outcome of interest because the study authors did not consider the result sufficiently interesting (selective outcome reporting) A located study may provide biased results for some outcome—for example, by presenting the result with the smallest P value or largest effect estimate after trying several analysis methods (selective analysis reporting).These biases may cause funnel plot asymmetry if statistically significant results suggesting a beneficial effect are more likely to be published than non-significant results. Such asymmetry may be exaggerated if there is a further tendency for smaller studies to be more prone to selective suppression of results than larger studies. This is often assumed to be the case for randomised trials. For instance, it is probably more difficult to make a large study disappear without trace, while a small study can easily be lost in a file drawer.21 The same may apply to specific outcomes—for example, it is difficult not to report on mortality or myocardial infarction if these are outcomes of a large study. Smaller studies have more sampling error in their effect estimates. Thus even though the risk of a false positive significant finding is the same, multiple analyses are more likely to yield a large effect estimate that may seem worth publishing. However, biases may not act this way in real life; funnel plots could be symmetrical even in the presence of publication bias or selective outcome reporting19 22—for example, if the published findings point to effects in different directions but unreported results indicate neither direction. Alternatively, bias may have affected few studies and therefore not cause glaring asymmetry.ChanceThe role of chance is critical for interpretation of funnel plots because most meta-analyses of randomised trials in healthcare contain few studies.2 Investigations of relations across studies in a meta-analysis are seriously prone to false positive findings when there is a small number of studies and heterogeneity across studies,23 and this may affect funnel plot symmetry.Interpreting funnel plot asymmetryAuthors of systematic reviews should distinguish between possible reasons for funnel plot asymmetry (box 1). Knowledge of the intervention, and the circumstances in which it was implemented in different studies, can help identify causes of asymmetry in funnel plots, which should also be interpreted in the context of susceptibility to biases of research in the field of interest. Potential conflicts of interest, whether outcomes and analyses have been standardised, and extent of trial registration may need to be considered. For example, studies of antidepressants generate substantial conflicts of interest because the drugs generate vast sales revenues. Furthermore, there are hundreds of outcome scales, analyses can be very flexible, and trial registration was uncommon until recently.24 Conversely, in a prospective meta-analysis where all data are included and all analyses fully standardised and conducted according to a predetermined protocol, publication or reporting biases cannot exist. Reporting bias is therefore more likely to be a cause of an asymmetric plot in the first situation than in the second.Terrin et al found that researchers were poor at identifying publication bias from funnel plots.5 Including contour lines corresponding to perceived milestones of statistical significance (P=0.01, 0.05, 0.1, etc) may aid visual interpretation.25 If studies seem to be missing in areas of non-significance (fig 3⇓, top) then asymmetry may be due to reporting bias, although other explanations should still be considered. If the supposed missing studies are in areas of higher significance or in a direction likely to be considered desirable to their authors (fig 3⇓, bottom), asymmetry is probably due to factors other than reporting bias. View larger version:In a new windowDownload as PowerPoint SlideFig 3 Contour enhanced funnel plots. In the top diagram there is a suggestion of missing studies in the middle and right of the plot, broadly in the white area of non-significance, making publication bias plausible. In the bottom diagram there is a suggestion of missing studies on the bottom left hand side of the plot. Since most of this area contains regions of high significance, publication bias is unlikely to be the underlying cause of asymmetryStatistical tests for funnel plot asymmetryA test for funnel plot asymmetry (sometimes referred to as a test for small study effects) examines whether the association between estimated intervention effects and a measure of study size is greater than might be expected to occur by chance. These tests typically have low power, so even when a test does not provide evidence of asymmetry, bias cannot be excluded. For outcomes measured on a continuous scale a test based on a weighted linear regression of the effect estimates on their standard errors is straightforward.1 When outcomes are dichotomous and intervention effects are expressed as odds ratios, this corresponds to an inverse variance weighted linear regression of the log odds ratio on its standard error.2 Unfortunately, there are statistical problems because the standard error of the log odds ratio is mathematically linked to the size of the odds ratio, even in the absence of small study effects.2 4 Many authors have therefore proposed alternative tests (see appendix on bmj.com).4 26 27 28Because it is impossible to know the precise mechanism(s) leading to funnel plot asymmetry, simulation studies (in which tests are evaluated on large numbers of computer generated datasets) are required to evaluate test characteristics. Most have examined a range of assumptions about the extent of reporting bias by selectively removing studies from simulated datasets.26 27 28 After reviewing the results of these studies, and based on theoretical considerations, we formulated recommendations on testing for funnel plot asymmetry (box 2). The appendix describes the proposed tests, explains the reasons that some were not recommended, and discusses funnel plots for intervention effects measured as risk ratios, risk differences, and standardised mean differences. Our recommendations imply that tests for funnel plot asymmetry should be used in only a minority of meta-analyses.29Box 2: Recommendations on testing for funnel plot asymmetryAll types of outcomeAs a rule of thumb, tests for funnel plot asymmetry should not be used when there are fewer than 10 studies in the meta-analysis because test power is usually too low to distinguish chance from real asymmetry. (The lower the power of a test, the higher the proportion of “statistically significant” results in which there is in reality no association between study size and intervention effects). In some situations—for example, when there is substantial heterogeneity—the minimum number of studies may be substantially more than 10Test results should be interpreted in the context of visual inspection of funnel plots— for example, are there studies with markedly different intervention effect estimates or studies that are highly influential in the asymmetry test? Even if an asymmetry test is statistically significant, publication bias can probably be excluded if small studies tend to lead to lower estimates of benefit than larger studies or if there are no studies with significant resultsWhen there is evidence of funnel plot asymmetry, publication bias is only one possible explanation (see box 1)As far as possible, testing strategy should be specified in advance: choice of test may depend on the degree of heterogeneity observed. Applying and reporting many tests is discouraged: if more than one test is used, all test results should be reported Tests for funnel plot asymmetry should not be used if the standard errors of the intervention effect estimates are all similar (the studies are of similar sizes)Continuous outcomes with intervention effects measured as mean differencesThe test proposed by Egger et al may be used to test for funnel plot asymmetry.1 There is no reason to prefer more recently proposed tests, although their relative advantages and disadvantages have not been formally examined. General considerations suggest that the power will be greater than for dichotomous outcomes but that use of the test with substantially fewer than 10 studies would be unwiseDichotomous outcomes with intervention effects measured as odds ratiosThe tests proposed by Harbord et al26 and Peters et al27 avoid the mathematical association between the log odds ratio and its standard error when there is a substantial intervention effect while retaining power compared with alternative tests. However, false positive results may still occur if there is substantial between study heterogeneityIf there is substantial between study heterogeneity (the estimated heterogeneity variance of log odds ratios, τ2, is >0.1) only the arcsine test including random effects, proposed by Rücker et al, has been shown to work reasonably well.28 However, it is slightly conservative in the absence of heterogeneity and its interpretation is less familiar than for other tests because it is based on an arcsine transformation.When τ2 is <0.1, one of the tests proposed by Harbord et al,26 Peters et al,27 or Rücker et al28 can be used. Test performance generally deteriorates as τ2 increases.Funnel plots and meta-analysis modelsFixed and random effects modelsFunnel plots can help guide choice of meta-analysis method. Random effects meta-analyses weight studies relatively more equally than fixed effect analyses by incorporating the between study variance into the denominator of each weight. If effect estimates are related to standard errors (funnel plot asymmetry), the random effects estimate will be pulled more towards findings from smaller studies than the fixed effect estimate will be. Random effects models can thus have undesirable consequences and are not always conservative.30The trials of intravenous magnesium after myocardial infarction provide an extreme example of the differences between fixed and random effects analyses that can arise in the presence of funnel plot asymmetry.31 Beneficial effects on mortality, found in a meta-analysis of small studies,32 were subsequently contradicted when the very large ISIS-4 study found no evidence of benefit.33 A contour enhanced funnel plot (fig 4⇓) gives a clear visual impression of asymmetry, which is confirmed by small P values from the Harbord and Peters tests (P<0.001 and P=0.002 respectively).View larger version:In a new windowDownload as PowerPoint SlideFig 4 Contour enhanced funnel plot for trials of the effect of intravenous magnesium on mortality after myocardial infarctionFigure 5⇓ shows that in a fixed effect analysis ISIS-4 receives 90% of the weight, and there is no evidence of a beneficial effect. However, there is clear evidence of between study heterogeneity (P<0.001, I2=68%), and in a random effects analysis the small studies dominate so that intervention appears beneficial. To interpret the accumulated evidence, it is necessary to make a judgment about the validity or relevance of the combined evidence from the smaller studies compared with that from ISIS-4. The contour enhanced funnel plot suggests that publication bias does not completely explain the asymmetry, since many of the beneficial effects reported from smaller studies were not significant. Plausible explanations for these results are that methodological flaws in the smaller studies, or changes in the standard of care (widespread adoption of treatments such as aspirin, heparin, and thrombolysis), led to apparent beneficial effects of magnesium. This belief was reinforced by the subsequent publication of the MAGIC trial, in which magnesium added to these treatments which also found no evidence of benefit on mortality (odds ratio 1.0, 95% confidence interval 0.8 to 1.1).34View larger version:In a new windowDownload as PowerPoint SlideFig 5 Comparison of fixed and random effects meta-analytical estimates of the effect of intravenous magnesium on mortality after myocardial infarctionWe recommend that when review authors are concerned about funnel plot asymmetry in a meta-analysis with evidence of between study heterogeneity, they should compare the fixed and random effects estimates of the intervention effect. If the random effects estimate is more beneficial, authors should consider whether it is plausible that the intervention is more effective in smaller studies. Formal investigations of heterogeneity of effects may reveal explanations for funnel plot asymmetry, in which case presentation of results should focus on these. If larger studies tend to be methodologically superior to smaller studies, or were conducted in circumstances more typical of the use of the intervention in practice, it may be appropriate to include only larger studies in the meta-analysis.Extrapolation of a funnel plot regression lineAn assumed relation between susceptibility to bias and study size can be exploited by extrapolating within a funnel plot. When funnel plot asymmetry is due to bias rather than substantive heterogeneity, it is usually assumed that results from larger studies are more believable than those from smaller studies because they are less susceptible to methodological flaws or reporting biases. Extrapolating a regression line on a funnel plot to minimum bias (maximum sample size) produces a meta-analytical estimate that can be regarded as corrected for such biases.35 36 37 However, because it is difficult to distinguish between asymmetry due to bias and asymmetry due to heterogeneity or chance, the broad applicability of such approaches is uncertain. Further approaches to adjusting for publication bias are described and discussed in the appendix.DiscussionReporting biases are one of a number of possible explanations for the associations between study size and effect size that are displayed in asymmetric funnel plots. Examining and testing for funnel plot asymmetry, when appropriate, is an important means of addressing bias in meta-analyses, but the multiple causes of asymmetry and limited power of asymmetry tests mean that other ways to address reporting biases are also of importance. Searches of online trial registries can identify unpublished trials, although they do not currently guarantee access to trial protocols and results. When there are no registered but unpublished trials, and the outcome of interest is reported by all trials, restricting meta-analyses to registered trials should preclude publication bias. Recent comparisons of results of published trials with those submitted for regulatory approval have also provided clear evidence of reporting bias.38 39 Methods for dealing with selective reporting of outcomes have been described elsewhere. 40Our recommendations apply to meta-analyses of randomised trials, and their applicability in other contexts such as meta-analyses of epidemiological or diagnostic test studies is unclear.41 The performance of tests for funnel plot asymmetry in these contexts is likely to differ from that in meta-analyses of randomised trials. Further factors, such as confounding and precision of measurements, may cause a relation between study size and effect estimates in observational studies. For example, large studies based on routinely collected data might not fully control confounding compared with smaller, purpose designed studies that collected a wide range of potential confounding variables. Alternatively, larger studies might use self reported exposure levels, which are more error prone, while smaller studies used precise measuring instruments. However, simulation studies have usually not considered such situations. An exception is for diagnostic studies, where large imbalances in group sizes and substantial odds ratios lead to poor performance of some tests: that proposed by Deeks et al was designed for use in this context.4Summary points Inferences on the presence of bias or heterogeneity should consider different causes of funnel plot asymmetry and should not be based on visual inspection of funnel plots aloneThey should be informed by contextual factors, including the plausibility of publication bias as an explanation for the asymmetryTesting for funnel plot asymmetry should follow the recommendations detailed in this articleThe fixed and random effects estimates of the intervention effect should be compared when funnel plot asymmetry exists in a meta-analysis with between study heterogeneityNotesCite this as: BMJ 2011;342:d4002FootnotesContributors: All authors contributed to the drafting and editing of the manuscript. DA, JC, JD, RMH, JPTH, JPAI, DRJ, DM, JP, GR, JACS, AJS and JT contributed to the chapter in the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions on which our recommendations on testing for funnel plot asymmetry are based. JACS will act as guarantor.Funding: Funded in part by the Cochrane Collaboration Bias Methods Group, which receives infrastructure funding as part of a commitment by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH) to fund Canadian based Cochrane entities. This supports dissemination activities, web hosting, travel, training, workshops and a full time coordinator position. JPTH was funded by MRC Grant U.1052.00.011. DGA is supported by Cancer Research UK. GR was supported by a grant from Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (FOR 534 Schw 821/2-2).Competing interests. JC, JJD, SD, RMH, JPAI, DRJ, PM, JP, GR, GS, JACS and AJS are all authors on papers proposing tests for funnel plot asymmetry, but have no commercial interests in the use of these tests. All authors have completed the ICJME unified disclosure form at www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf (available on request from the corresponding author) and declare that they have no financial or non-financial interests that may be relevant to the submitted work.Provenance and peer review: Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.References↵Egger M, Davey Smith G, Schneider M, Minder C. Bias in meta-analysis detected by a simple, graphical test. BMJ1997;315:629-34.OpenUrlFREE Full Text↵Sterne JAC, Gavaghan D, Egger M. Publication and related bias in meta-analysis: power of statistical tests and prevalence in the literature. J Clin Epidemiol2000;53:1119-29.OpenUrlCrossRefMedlineWeb of Science↵Lau J, Ioannidis JP, Terrin N, Schmid CH, Olkin I. The case of the misleading funnel plot. 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