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The Effects of Growth Mindset on College Persistence and Completion

We study the long-term effects of a psychological intervention on longitudinal academic outcomes and degree completion of college students. All freshmen at a large public university were randomized to an online growth mindset, belonging, or control group. We tracked students’ academic outcomes including GPA, number of credits attempted and earned, major choices, and degree completion. We found no evidence of longitudinal academic treatment effects in the full sample. However, the mindset treatment improved term GPAs for Latinx students and the probability for Pell-eligible and Latinx students to major in selective majors. We also found no evidence of increased rates of on-time graduation, however, the treatment raised the probability to graduate with selective majors in four years, especially for Latinx students.

Keywords
college persistence, college completion, growth mindset
Education level
Document Object Identifier (DOI)
10.26300/4qg9-zp49

EdWorkingPaper suggested citation:

Kim, Soobin, John Yun, Barbara Schneider, Michael Broda, Christopher Klager, and I-Chien Chen. (). The Effects of Growth Mindset on College Persistence and Completion. (EdWorkingPaper: 22-516). Retrieved from Annenberg Institute at Brown University: https://doi.org/10.26300/4qg9-zp49

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