How students' perceptions of older siblings' mindsets relate to their math motivation, behavior, and emotion: a person-centered approach
摘要
Recent research suggests that actual and perceived mindsets of socializers can impact students’ academic-related outcomes, including motivation, self-reported behavior, and emotion. In the present study, we focus on a less-studied socializer, older siblings, exploring patterns in students’ perceptions of their siblings’ growth and fixed mindsets and how these perceptions relate to their outcomes in math learning. Using a latent profile analysis approach with undergraduate students (N = 508), we find evidence for three distinct profiles of perceived sibling mindset: high growth mindset, low growth mindset, and ambivalent. When students perceived their siblings to have a high growth mindset, they had more adaptive motivation, self-reported behaviors, and emotions, compared to when they perceived their siblings to have a low growth mindset; those in the ambivalent group had more mixed outcomes. Our findings suggest that the presence of growth mindset messages from an older sibling may help to support students’ motivation, self-reported behaviors, and positive emotions, whereas a lack of growth mindset messages from an older sibling may dampen these outcomes. Implications for theory and future research are discussed.