Do Modern Orthodox Jewish adolescents' relationships with parents, teachers and G-d impact the likelihood of adopting a growth mindset?

Abstract

Adopting a growth mindset has tremendous value, both in and out of the classroom. In order to fully understand Growth Mindset, it is important to review literature on Relationships and Attachment Theory because the two areas of scholarship share characteristics and are dependent on similar aspects of parent-child, teacher-child, and G-d-child relationships. This study examines the impact of these relationships on the likelihood of adopting a growth mindset and hypothesizes that each individual relationship will predict greater rate of growth mindset. The data partially supported the hypotheses. In particular, relationships with parents were shown to be a predictor of growth mindset; relationships with teachers were seen to predict greater adoption of growth mindset, particularly among younger high school students, and among students who earned mostly A’s; and relationship with G-d was not correlated or in some instances appeared to have a negative impact on growth mindset.