




































 

 

 

 

 

Can a Growth Mindset Be Successfully 

Cultivated in Adolescents? A Three-

Year Longitudinal Study of an 

Intervention Program in a Rural School 

in China

Junfeng Zhang, Ruxian Yun 

 
School of Education, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China 

 

Abstract: In response to the debates on the effectiveness of growth 

mindset interventions and their applicability in various cultural 
contexts, the study applied a localized intervention program in a 

rural school in China’ Yangtze River Delta region through a 

randomized controlled experiment and evaluates its effects 
longitudinally using the difference-in-differences method. Its 

research findings revealed that the localized growth mindset 
intervention program significantly strengthened the growth mindset 

of the subjects, that the intervention had long-term effects, that it 

had a greater positive effect on growth mindset development in 
younger students and those with lower initial levels of this mindset, 

and that the enhancement of the students’ growth mindset via the 

intervention program successfully improved their learning 

behavior. 

Best Evidence in Chinese Education 2025; 21(1):1993-1997 

DOI: 10.15354/bece.25.ar177 

How to Cite: Zhang, J., & Yun, R. (2025). Can a growth mindset be 

successfully cultivated in adolescents? a three-year longitudinal study of an 

intervention program in a rural school in China. Best Evidence in Chinese 

Education, 2025, 21(1):1993-1997. 

Keywords: Growth Mindset, Intervention and Follow-Up, Learning Behavior, 

Adolescent, China 

 

 



Wang. (China). The Impact of Teacher Leadership. 

BECE, Vol.21, No.1, 2025 1994 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About the Author: Ruxian Yu, School of Education, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China. E-mail: 
jssyyrx@163.com  

Correspondence to: Ruxian Yu at Nanjing University in China. 

Conflict of Interests: None 

Funding: No funding sources declared. 

AI Declaration: The author affirms that artificial intelligence did not contribute to the process of preparing the 

work. 

 
 

© 2025 Insights Publisher. All rights reserved. 

Creative Commons NonCommercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the 
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 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:jssyyrx@163.com
http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/


Wang. (China). The Impact of Teacher Leadership. 

BECE, Vol.21, No.1, 2025 1995 

Introduction 

ROWTH mindset cultivation has been deemed an effective strategy 

for assisting with adolescents’ mental development and unlocking 

their potential. Nevertheless, recent years saw growing debates on 

the effectiveness of growth mindset interventions and their applicability in 

various cultural contexts, which has prompted consideration of cultural 

background, specific educational practices, and developmental 

characteristics of the individual in the development of growth mindset 

cultivation programs. This study is a longitudinal evaluation of a localized 

growth mindset intervention program with a sample of 340 upper-grade 

students at a rural primary school in China’s Yangtze River Delta region. 

Using panel data, the difference-in-differences (DiD) method, and a 

mediation model, the study addresses three questions: (i) Can the growth 

mindset be successfully fostered in adolescents? (ii) Which adolescents 

benefit more from a growth mindset intervention? (iii) Is fostering 

adolescents’ growth mindset beneficial for the improvement of their learning 

behavior? 

Research Design 

Implementation of the Experiment 

Experimental Subjects 

The subjects were fourth and sixth grade students from a rural primary 

school in Jiangsu Province. Randomly selected were one fourth-grade class 

and one sixth-grade class as the control group, and another two classes of the 

same pattern as the experimental group. There were 171 students in the 

experimental group and 169 students in the control group. 

Enactment of the Experiment 

The experiment spanned three academic years: September 2021– June 2022, 

September 2022– June 2023, and September 2023– June 2024. Prior to the 

intervention’s implementation, every student completed a background 

information questionnaire and the main questionnaire in September 2021 

(T1). The research team implemented the intervention during the two 

semesters of the first academic year. Follow-up investigations based on the 

main questionnaire were administered in the classroom at the following time 

points: December 2021 (T2), March 2022 (T3), June 2022 (T4), June 2023 

(T5), and June 2024 (T6). 

G 



Wang. (China). The Impact of Teacher Leadership. 

BECE, Vol.21, No.1, 2025 1996 

The Intervention Program 

To better align the intervention with the needs of Chinese students, a classic 

growth mindset intervention program was adapted, incorporating dimensions 

of effort-valued culture, metacognitive strategies, and multifaceted 

evaluation, based on the characteristics of Chinese students’ mindsets. 

The Questionnaire 

The main questionnaire consists of four scales: Implicit Theory of 

Intelligence (ITI), Peer Praise (PP), Self-Confidence Attitude Attribute Scale 

(SaaS), and Academic Motivation (AM). 

Estimation Methods 

First off, a two-period DiD model was used to analyze the effectiveness of 

the intervention program in enhancing the students’ growth mindset. 

Furthermore, multi-period DiD was employed to evaluate the long-term 

effects of the intervention, which is made possible by the study’s panel data. 

Also, the quantile regression method was adopted to examine the 

intervention’s effects on students with varying initial levels of growth 

mindset. In addition, the study created a mediation model to determine the 

intervention’s effects in improving the students’ learning behavior. 

Research Findings 

First, the intervention program had significantly positive effects in enhancing 

the growth mindset levels of all subjects in the experimental group. The 

regression results remained consistent when variables, such as environmental 

factors (grade, class), personal factors (gender, urban or rural residence), and 

parental factors (parental occupation, parental highest education level), were 

incorporated respectively. 

Second, students with younger ages and lower initial levels of growth 

mindset benefited more from the intervention. The program exhibited grade 

differences in its effects, affecting the fourth-grade subjects more greatly 

than the six-grade ones. Also, there was an inverse correlation between the 

initial level of the subject and the intervention’s effects. The lower the 

subject’s initial level of growth mindset, the more effective the intervention 

was in enhancing it. This implies that growth mindset intervention can 

contribute to the mitigation of academic gaps in students. 

Third, the intervention program showcased long-term effects in 

elevating the growth mindset levels in the subjects, particularly in the fourth 

graders, whose changes were evidenced by six-period data, which showed 



Wang. (China). The Impact of Teacher Leadership. 

BECE, Vol.21, No.1, 2025 1997 

the intervention’s effects remained basically stable within the two years after 

its implementation, albeit with slight, but insignificant declines. 

Lastly, heightening the subjects’ growth mindset via the intervention 

program significantly improved their learning behavior, including reducing 

negative motivations for learning, diluting the ability-based attribution, 

increasing process-focused inter-peer feedback, and reinforcing the effort-

based attribution. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

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

(Educational Sciences), 2025; 43(04): 53-69. The English version has been authorized for being 

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

张军凤 云如先 (2025). 青少年的成长型思维可以有效培养吗?——基于一所农村学校为期三年的
干预追踪调查. 华东师范大学学报（教育科学版）, 43(04): 53-69. 

 

 

Received: June 24, 2025 

Revised: August 11, 2025 

Accepted: September 04, 2025

 


