Poster #41 - Academic Stress and Depressive Symptoms Among Chinese Adolescents: The Protective Role of Teacher’s Growth and Failure Mindset

• In Event: Poster Session 01

Abstract

Academic stress was identified as one of the psychosocial risk factors for depressive symptoms among adolescents (Tang et al., 2020). Chinese students were found to experience more academic stress than their Western counterparts did (Sun et al., 2012). As such, researchers have explored several factors that could protect Chinese students’ mental health from academic stress at both student and school levels (e.g., Liu & Lu, 2012). However, few studies have focused on the role of teachers’ views on adolescents’ academic stress and mental health. Based on the mindset + supportive context hypothesis (Walton & Yeager, 2020), teachers’ growth mindset and their view that failure is enhancing may act as an affordance that can convey to students that one’s intelligence can be improved substantially through time and effort, and mistakes are learning opportunities. Students in such class context may have a more adaptive interpretation of academic stress and therefore may experience a lower level of depressive symptoms in face of academic stress. Accordingly, the aim of the study was to explore the potential role of teachers’ growth and failure mindset that may buffer the association between academic stress and depressive symptoms among Chinese adolescents. Participants consisted of 882 adolescents (M age = 11.47, SD age= 1.76, 43.9% girls) from 18 classes, 6 public schools and their head teachers (M age = 33.49, SD age= 7.05).
Adolescents reported their depressive symptoms and academic stress. Teachers reported their growth mindset and failure mindset. Multilevel regression analyses showed that the relation between adolescents’ academic stress and depressive symptoms was moderated by their teacher’s growth and failure mindset. Specifically, the magnitude of the association between adolescents’ academic stress and depressive symptoms weakened when their teachers hold a higher level of growth mindset. Similarly, teachers’ failure mindset was also found to have such protective effects in reducing depressive symptoms when adolescents experience academic stress. Findings highlighted the possibility of protecting Chinese adolescents’ mental health from academic stress through fostering teachers’ views of intelligence as changeable and failure as having positive effects.

Authors

• Tong Zhou, East China Normal University
  Presenting Author

• Xi Chen, East China Normal University

• Hong Zheng

• Junsheng Liu, East China Normal University