Emotion Mindset of Sixth Grade Students: Association With Emotion Regulation Difficulties and Experiences of Psychological Distress

Abstract

The mindset framework indicates that an individual’s beliefs about the changeability or controllability of their abilities are associated with their behaviors. Individuals with a fixed emotion mindset believe their emotions are uncontrollable and unchangeable, whereas those with a growth emotion mindset believe their emotions are controllable and changeable (Skymba et al., 2022; Tamir et al., 2007). Utilizing the conceptual framework of emotion mindset theory by Tamir and colleagues (2007), I focused on two separate dimensions of fixed and growth emotion mindset and examined how they are associated with (a) difficulties in emotion regulation and (b) psychological distress. Further, I explored the moderating role of students’ gender and race among those associations. Finally, based on the theoretical framework of the ability model of emotion regulation (Gratz & Roemer, 2004), I explored the mediation effect of students’ difficulties in emotion regulation regarding the association between emotion mindsets and psychological distress. To evaluate these research questions, 190 sixth-grade students were recruited from 5 schools within Milwaukee County and surrounding areas. The findings indicate emotion mindset accounts for sixth graders’ emotion dysregulation and psychological distress. The small negative correlation between fixed and growth emotion mindsets suggests that the two types of beliefs can operate somewhat independently. Higher levels of fixed emotion mindset are related to greater difficulties in emotion regulation. Lower levels of growth emotion mindset appeared to have more disadvantages in functioning as they related to higher levels of both dysregulation and distress. Gender moderated the associations: the association between growth emotion mindset and (a) difficulties in emotion regulation and (b) psychological distress was stronger for girls than for boys. Finally, difficulties in emotion regulation mediated the link between emotion mindset and psychological distress. Based on the results of the study, I discussed implications for research and school psychology practice to address the mental health needs of sixth-grade students who undergo a critical transitionary period from elementary to middle school.