The Influence of Growth Mindset on Elementary School Students' Subjective Well-Being: The Mediating Role of Academic Self-Efficacy and the Moderating Role of Perceived Teacher Support
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.70152/genfabet.v3i1.439Article Metrics
Keywords:
academic self-efficacy, elementary school students, growth mindset, perceived teacher support, subjective well-beingAbstract
Elementary school students' subjective well-being has been reported to be declining, raising concerns about their long-term psychological and academic development. Despite growing interest in growth mindset and its benefits, few studies have simultaneously examined academic self-efficacy as a mediator and perceived teacher support as a moderator within a single integrated model for elementary school students. This study aims to examine the role of growth mindset in predicting subjective well-being, with academic self-efficacy as a mediating variable and perceived teacher support as a moderating variable. A quantitative approach with a cross-sectional design was employed. Data were collected from 240 elementary school students in West Java, Indonesia, selected through purposive sampling. A self-report questionnaire comprising 38 items across four constructs was administered using a four-point Likert scale. Data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) with SmartPLS 4, applying bootstrapping with 5,000 resamples to assess mediation and moderation effects. The results show that growth mindset significantly and positively predicts subjective well-being (β = 0.361, p < 0.001). Academic self-efficacy partially mediates this relationship (indirect effect = 0.094, 95% CI [0.038, 0.165]), accounting for approximately 26% of the total effect. Perceived teacher support significantly moderates the relationship between growth mindset and academic self-efficacy (β = 0.110, p = .026). In conclusion, subjective well-being in elementary school students is shaped by the interplay of growth mindset, self-efficacy, and teacher support. This study contributes a comprehensive moderated mediation model that bridges individual cognitive beliefs with contextual classroom factors, providing practical guidance for educators and policymakers to design targeted interventions that strengthen students' psychological well-being.
References
Beck, A. T. (1979). Cognitive therapy of depression. https://books.google.co.id/books/about/Cognitive_Therapy_of_Depression. html?id=L09cRS0xWj0C&redir_esc=y
Cai, Guo, X., Liu, C., Li, Y., Zhao, B., Bi, T., & Luo, L. (2024). Intelligence mindsets trajectory profiles among chinese elementary school students: associations with changes in academic achievement from grades 4 to 6. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 54, 238–254. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-024-02061-z
Cai, Y., & Xing, K. (2025). Teacher support as a context of growth mindset in predicting reading achievement. Social Psychology of Education, 28(117). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-025-10074-0
Campbell, A., Converse, P. E., & Rodgers, W. L. (1976). The quality of american life: perceptions, evaluations, and satisfactions. https://books.google.co.id/books/about/The_Quality_of_American_Life.html?id=h_QWAwAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y
Cohen, J. (1986). Set correlation and contingency tables. applied psychological measurement, 12(4), 425–434.
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). The “ what ” and “ why ” of goal pursuits : human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11(4), 227–268. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327965PLI1104_01
Diener, E., Lucas, R. E., & Organization, G. (2015). National accounts of subjective well-being. American Psychologist, 70(3), 234–242. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038899
Dweck, C. S. (1999). Self-theories: Their role in motivation, personality, and development. https://books.google.co.id/books/about/Self_theories.html?id=P0Mccblm6eUC&redir_esc=y
Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: the new psychology of success. random house. https://books.google.co.id/books?id=fdjqz0TPL2wC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. F. (1981). Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research, 18(1), 39–50. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224378101800104
Geisser, S. (1973). A Predictive ~pproach to the Random Effect Model. Biometrika, 61(1), 101–107.
Hair, J. F., J., J., & Ringle, R. M. S. C. M. (2019). When to use and how to report the results of PLS-SEM. European Business Review, 31(1), 2–24. https://doi.org/10.1108/EBR-11-2018-0203
Hayes, A. F. (2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: a regression based approach. https://books.google.co.id/books/about/Introduction_to_Mediation_Moderation_and.html?id=8YX2QwGgD8AC&redir_esc=y
Henseler, J., Ringle, C. M., & Sarstedt, M. (2015). A new criterion for assessing discriminant validity in variance-based structural equation modeling. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 43, 115–135. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-014-0403-8
Jia, Y., Ling, G., Chen, X., Hughes, D., Ke, X., & Lu, Z. (2009). The influence of student perceptions of school climate on socioemotional and academic adjustment : a comparison of chinese and american adolescents. Child Development, 80(5), 1514–1530. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01348.x
Kroeper, K. M., Fried, A. C., & Murphy, M. C. (2022). Towards fostering growth mindset classrooms: identifying teaching behaviors that signal instructors’ fixed and growth mindsets beliefs to students. Social Psychology of Education, 25, 371–398. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-022-09689-4
Ma, Y., Ma, C., & Lan, X. (2023). A person centered analysis of emotional behavioral functioning profiles in adolescents : Associations with teacher autonomy support and growth mindset. Current Psychology, 42(24), 20591–20605. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03163-2
Midgley, C., Maehr, M. L., Hruda, L. Z., Anderman, E., Anderman, L., Freeman, K. E., Gheen, M., Kaplan, A., Kumar, R., Middleton, M. J., Nelson, J., Roeser, R., & Midgley, C. (2000). Manual for the patterns of adaptive learning scales (PALS). Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan, 734–763. https://public.websites.umich.edu/~pals/PALS 2000_V13Word97
Nunnally. (1978). Psychometric Theory. New York : McGraw-Hill. https://books.google.co.id/books/about/Psychometric_theory.html?id=r0fuAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y
Peng, L., Chen, H., Liang, W., & Shi, Z. (2025). The impact of growth mindset on subjective wellbeing in elementary school students : a moderated mediation model. Frontiers in Psychology, 16(1595422). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1595422
Qi, C., Guo, X., Liu, C., Li, Y., Zhao, B., Bi, T., & Luo, L. (2024). Intelligence mindsets trajectory profiles among chinese elementary school students : associations with changes in academic achievement from grades 4 to 6. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 54(1). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-024-02061-z
Rautanen, P., Soini, T., Pietarinen, J., & Pyhältö, K. (2021). Primary school students ’ perceived social support in relation to study engagement. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 36, 653–672. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-020-00492-3
Serrão, R., Dias, P., Andrés, A., Bowe, M., & Renshaw, T. (2024). Adolescents ’ school ‑ based universal well ‑ being screening : a validation of the student subjective wellbeing questionnaire in portugal. School Mental Health, 16(4), 1261–1274. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-024-09691-5
Wilson, C. (2016). Mixed-method case study of growth mindset, grit, and reading a mixed-method case study of growth mindset, grit, and reading scores in a midwest public elementary school. Digital Commons@Lindenwood University.
Yeager, D. S., Hanselman, P., Walton, G. M., Murray, J. S., Crosnoe, R., Muller, C., Paunesku, D., Romero, C., Tipton, E., Schneider, B., Hulleman, C. S., & Cintia, P. (2019). A national experiment reveals where a growth mindset improves achievement. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1466-y
Yu, J., Kreijkes, P., & Salmela-aro, K. (2022). Students ’ growth mindset : relation to teacher beliefs , teaching practices , and school climate. Learning and Instruction, 80(March), 101616. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2022.101616
Zhao, H., Zhang, M., Li, Y., & Wang, Z. (2023a). The effect of growth mindset on adolescents ’ meaning in life : the roles of self-efficacy and gratitude. Management Behavior, 4647–4664. https://doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S428397
Zhao, H., Zhang, M., Li, Y., & Wang, Z. (2023b). The effect of growth mindset on adolescents ’ meaning in life : the roles of self-efficacy and gratitude. 4647–4664. https://doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S428397
Zhong, J., Wen, J., & Li, K. (2023). Do achievement goals differently orient students ’ academic engagement through learning strategy and academic self-efficacy and vary by grade. Psychology Research and Behavior Management, 10, 4779–4797. https://doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S424593
Zhonglin, W. (2017). Causal reasoning and analysis in empirical research. Journal of Psychological Science, 40(1), 200–208. https://doi.org/10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20170130
Zhonglin, W., & Baojuan, Y. (2014). Analyses of Mediating Effects: The Development of Methods and Models. Advances in Psychological Science, 22(5), 731–745. https://doi.org/10.3724/SP.J.1042.2014.00731
Zimmerman, B. J. (2000). Self-efficacy : an essential motive to learn. 82–91. https://doi.org/10.1006/ceps.1999.1016
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Ganis Ainnur Rahmah, Bunga Adelia

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Copyright for this article is held by authors under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0). The article may be used, shared, and adapted for any purpose with proper attribution and distribution under the same license. Full license details: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/










