Belonging in STEM: Growth Mindset as a Filter of Contextual Cues

Abstract

Undergraduate students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs face unique challenges to their psychological well-being, including their sense of belonging.Recent evidence suggests that beliefs about the malleability of intelligence (growth mindsets) support STEM students' belongingness, though the mechanisms of this relationship are unclear.We propose and test a model in which students' personal growth mindset beliefs relate to their sense of belonging by operating as a filter of environmental cues, especially those signaling instructors' mindsets, peers' mindsets, and the overall trustworthiness of the school. Across more than 3,000 students in two diverse STEM contexts, we found general support for this model (mean RMSEA = 0.041; mean R 2 = 39%). Perceived environmental cues explained 100% (Study 1) and 35% (Study 2) of the total effect of personal growth mindset on belonging. In addition to model generalizability, there was meaningful heterogeneity in the results observed across contexts. These results suggest a novel filtering function of growth mindsets in addition to the importance of perceptions of instructors' growth mindsets and school trust for belonging.Discussion centers on the factors that may account for model variability, as well as theoretical and practical implications of the findings.

Effects of matching personal and organizational mindsets on belonging and organizational interest.

“…One might observe that whereas the beneficial effect of organizational mindsets on belonging and interest in joining organizations was robust and reliable across studies, the beneficial effects of personal mindsets were more inconsistent. These results echo previous findings in the literature: unlike organizational growth mindsets, personal growth mindsets have not consistently been linked to increased belonging and interest: whereas some studies find support for these links (Burnette et al, 2020; Deiglmayr et al, 2019; Williams et al, 2021), others do not (LaCosse et al, 2020; Rattan et al, 2018). Importantly, the current work suggests one reason for these inconsistencies may be that personal growth mindsets should primarily increase belonging in more growth environments.…”

“…There may also be other reasons for a lack of an overall main effect of personal mindsets on belonging in the current work. Prior work suggests that personal mindsets can influence perceptions of the organization’s mindset, which then influences belonging (Williams et al, 2021). In Studies 1–3, we clearly manipulated organizational mindsets; personal mindsets may have more of an effect when the organizational mindset of an environment is ambiguous (as in Study 4, in which we do find an effect of personal mindsets on belonging).…”

“…We note that unlike research on the impact of organizational mindsets, there is only limited (and mixed) evidence for the effects of personal mindsets on belonging and interest. Although a couple of papers suggest that personal mindsets can bolster belonging (Deiglmayr et al, 2019; Williams et al, 2021), other work does not support this relation (LaCosse et al, 2020; Muenks et al, 2020; Rattan et al, 2018). Similarly, there is some evidence for an effect of personal mindset beliefs on interest in joining a field (Burnette et al, 2020), but other research does not support this (LaCosse et al, 2020; Muenks et al, 2020).…”