







































 

 

 

 

 

The Growth Mindset and Student Social and 

Emotional Skill Development: An Empirical 

Analysis Based on the OECD’s SSES

Zhongjing Huang, Kaiyue Shang, Jing Zhang 

 
East China Normal University, Shanghai 20062, China 

 

Abstract: The mindset is a crucial factor influencing the behavior of individuals. 

This study aims to evaluate the growth mindset of 10- and 15-year-old adolescents 

and the relationship between their mindsets and social and emotional skills from the 

viewpoints of students, parents, and teachers, using OECD’s SSES 2019 data from 

Suzhou City. The research results show that the growth mindset of students is 

affected by their socioeconomic status; and that the growth mindset of students, 

parents, and teachers can significantly and positively predict student social and 

emotional skills? 

Best Evidence in Chinese Education 2023; 14(1):1745-1749. 

Doi: 10.15354/bece.23.ar041 

How to Cite: Huang, Z., Shang, K., & Zhang, J. (2023). The growth mindset and 

student social and emotional skill development: An empirical analysis based on the 

OECD’s SSES. Best Evidence in Chinese Education, 14(1):1745-1749. 

Keywords: Adolescents, Growth Mindset, Social and Emotional Skill, Regression Analyses 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Huang et al. (Shanghai, China). Growth Mindset and Student Social and Emotional Skill. 

BECE, Vol.14, No.1, 2023 1746 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

About Authors: Kaiyue Shang, Department of Educational Psychology, Faculty of Education, East China Normal 

University, Shanghai 20062, China. 

Jing Zhang, Department of Educational Psychology, Faculty of Education, East China Normal University, 
Shanghai 20062, China. 

Correspondence to: Zhongjing Huang, Department of Education, Faculty of Education, East China Normal 
University, Shanghai 20062, China. E-mail: zjhuang@dedu.ecnu.edu.cn  
Conflict of Interests: None. 
 

© 2023 Insights Publisher. All rights reserved. 

Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the 

Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 License 

(http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of 

the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed by the Insights Publisher. 

mailto:zjhuang@dedu.ecnu.edu.cn
http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/


Huang et al. (Shanghai, China). Growth Mindset and Student Social and Emotional Skill. 

BECE, Vol.14, No. 1, 2023 1747 

Introduction 

The growth mindset is a crucial mental attitude in promoting student social and emo-

tional skill development. This study utilized China-related data from the OECD’s Sur-

vey on Social and Emotional Skills (SSES) 2019 to explore developmental levels of the 

growth mindset among Chinese 10- and 15-year- old students and to examine the rela-

tionship between their growth mindset and social and emotional skills as well as the 

influence of the growth mindset of parents and teachers on student social and emotional 

skill development, in an effort to provide valuable insights for the improvement of fu-

ture education.  

Methodologies 

Sample Selection 

Stratified two-stage cluster sampling was employed to obtain data of 10- and 15-year- 

old Chinese students from primary and secondary schools (excluding schools for chil-

dren of migrant workers and special education schools) in six districts and four counties 

of Suzhou City. A total of 7,550 subjects were investigated, with 3,800 students from 

the 10-year-old group (aged between 10 years and two months and 11 years and one 

month) and 3,750 students from the 15-year-old group (aged between 15 years and two 

months and 16 years and one month). Eventually, 7,268 students completed the proce-

dure of the survey, making up 96.26% of the original participants, and were weighted to 

represent 150,964 primary and secondary students in Suzhou.  

Measurement Tools 

(i) Social and Emotional Skills 

Based on the Big Five personality traits model, OECD’s SSES developed a 96-item 

questionnaire, in which student social and emotional skills were categorized into five 

dimensions: task performance, emotional control, collaboration, openness, and interac-

tions with others. 

(ii) The Growth Mindset 

In OECD’s SSES, there were three items intended to measure individuals’ growth 

mindset, corresponding to social skills, emotional skills, and intelligence, respectively. 

This study chose to incorporate the two items pertinent to social and emotional skills as 

it focused on these two aspects. To be specific, the following two items were used to 

measure the growth mindset of students, parents, and teachers: (1) You cannot make too 

much change to your social skills by yourself; (2) You cannot make too much change to 

your emotional skills by yourself. 

(iii) Analysis Methods 



Huang et al. (Shanghai, China). Growth Mindset and Student Social and Emotional Skill. 

BECE, Vol.14, No. 1, 2023 1748 

The study conducted descriptive statistics, correlation, and regression analyses on the 

growth mindsets and social and emotional skills of students, parents, and teachers, using 

the software SPSS 25.0. The growth mindsets of students, parents, and teachers were 

the independent variables, skills included in the SSES were dependent variables, and 

students’ gender, age, and socio-economic status (SES) were control variables in this 

study. Multi-variate linear regression analyses were performed to evaluate the impact of 

the growth mindsets of students in the two age groups as well as their parents and 

teachers on their social and emotional skills. 

Findings 

The Overall Status of Students’ Growth Mindset 

In terms of the growth mindset, the 15-year-old group scored slightly higher than the 

10-year-old one, students scored higher than parents and teachers on average, and par-

ents and teachers of the 15-year-olds scored higher than those of 10-year-olds. 

Differences in the Growth Mindset among Various Stu-

dent Groups 

There was no significant difference in the rating of the growth mindset between male 

and female students. The rating of the growth mindset of the 15-year-olds was remarka-

bly higher than that of the 10-year-olds. Students with high SES scored significantly 

higher than those with low SES. 

Correlations between the Growth Mindset and Student 

Social and Emotional Skills 

The growth mindset was positively correlated with the 15 social and emotional sub-

competencies among students, and the correlation between the two aspects was stronger 

among the 15-year-olds than the 10-year-olds. The correlation between the stress re-

sistance and the growth mindset was weaker among the 15-year-old group than the 10-

year-old one. There was a close relationship between parents’ growth mindset and the 

15 sub-competencies of students, which was, nevertheless, weaker than that between 

students’ own mindset and these competencies. Teachers’ growth mindset showed a 

weak correlation with most social and emotional competencies of students and even a 

negative correlation with some of them such as sociableness, resilience, optimism, emo-

tional control, and trust. 

Influences of the Growth Mindset of Students, Parents, 

and Teachers on Student Social and Emotional Skills 

Students’ growth mindset could significantly and positively predict their social and 

emotional skills, with a stronger predictive power on 15-year-olds’ social and emotional 



Huang et al. (Shanghai, China). Growth Mindset and Student Social and Emotional Skill. 

BECE, Vol.14, No. 1, 2023 1749 

skills. Overall, parents’ growth mindset had a significant positive predictive effect on 

students’ social and emotional skills. Teachers’ growth mindset had a positive predic-

tive effect on some of the social and emotional skills of students while it had a negative 

predictive effect on the other ones, with the overall predictive effect being insignificant. 

 
 

 

The Chinese version of this article has been published in Journal of East China Normal University 

(Educational Sciences), 2023, 2023(4):22-32. The English version has been authorized for being 

publication in BECE by the author(s) and the Chinese journal. 

 

黄忠敬, 尚凯悦, 张静. (2023). 成长型思维如何影响学生社会与情感能力的发展—基于 OECD

社会与情感能力测评的实证分析. 华东师范大学学报 (教育科学版), 2023, 2023(4):22-32. 

 

 

Received: 01 May 2023 

Revised: 10 May 2023 

Accepted: 20 May 2023 

 

 

 

 

 


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