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How Growth Mindsets Shape Emotional Support, Math Anxiety, and Achievement in Low-Achieving Students

Sun, April 12, 9:45 to 11:15am PDT (9:45 to 11:15am PDT), Westin Bonaventure, Floor: Level 3, Avalon

Abstract

Objectives

This study investigates how teachers’ and students’ growth mindset beliefs jointly shape classroom emotional support, and how this climate influences students’ math achievement, growth mindset, and math anxiety. Addressing the affective challenges faced by low-achieving students, it examines whether emotionally supportive environments (partly fostered by teacher beliefs) can buffer anxiety and foster academic success in mathematics.

Perspective(s) or theoretical framework

Anchored in the control-value theory of achievement emotions (Pekrun, 2006), this work extends prior research by integrating motivational and socio-emotional processes within classrooms. It considers how teachers’ beliefs about the malleability of abilities (growth mindsets; Dweck, 2006) contribute to classroom emotional climates that mitigate anxiety—a central barrier to mathematics engagement (Foley et al., 2017). It further draws on ecological and relational models highlighting the interplay of teacher and student beliefs in shaping emotional experiences.

Methods

The full multilevel mediation is depicted in figure 6. Using a three-wave longitudinal design, we collected survey and assessment data from low-achieving fifth-grade students and their mathematics teachers over an academic year. Teachers reported their growth mindset beliefs at the start of the year. Students completed measures of their own growth mindset and perceived emotional support, along with standardized math tests and a validated math anxiety scale. Multilevel mediation models were employed to examine indirect pathways from teacher mindset to aggregated student outcomes via perceived emotional support. The sample comprised 881 fifth-grade students (Mage = 10.96) and 31 math teachers across multiple German federal states. Data were collected at three points: T1 (teacher mindset, student mindset, perceived support), T2 (student mindset, perceived support, math anxiety, achievement), and T3 (math anxiety, achievement). Math achievement was assessed with standardized instruments appropriate for grade level. Math anxiety was measured using a scale capturing affective and physiological responses to math.

Results

Multilevel analyses revealed that teachers’ growth mindset beliefs predicted higher perceived emotional support at the class level. In turn, classrooms characterized by greater support showed higher aggregated math achievement, stronger student growth mindsets, and lower math anxiety. Perceived emotional support significantly mediated these associations, highlighting it as a crucial pathway linking teacher beliefs to student outcomes. At the individual level, students with stronger growth mindsets reported more perceived support, better math performance, and less anxiety. These results underscore how both teacher and student beliefs interweave to shape emotionally supportive climates that promote academic success and reduce anxiety.

Scientific significance

This study advances understanding of how motivational beliefs operate not only within individuals but also across classroom ecologies to influence emotional experiences and academic outcomes in mathematics. It demonstrates that fostering growth mindsets (especially among teachers) may cultivate climates that buffer anxiety and support learning, offering practical leverage points for interventions targeting low-achieving or math-anxious students. By highlighting how mindsets and perceived support intersect to shape achievement emotions, this work contributes to broader efforts to create emotionally healthy learning environments that enable equitable academic success.

Authors