Depression and Reasoning Ability in Adolescents: Examining the Moderating Role of Growth Mindset

Chen Hu; Cuicui Wang; Weiwei Liu; Daoyang Wang

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.636368

Depression and Reasoning Ability in Adolescents: Examining the Moderating Role of Growth Mindset

Front Psychol. 2022 Mar 14:13:636368. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.636368. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Chen Hu^{1

2}, Cuicui Wang^{3

4

5

6

6}, Weiwei Liu⁷, Daoyang Wang¹

Affiliations

¹ College of Education, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China.
² Department of Mental Health Education, School of Public Education, Zhejiang Institute of Economics and Trade, Hangzhou, China.
³ Deqing Hospital of Hangzhou Normal University, Huzhou, China.
⁴ Center for Cognition and Brain Disorders, The Affiliated Hospital of Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China.
⁵ Institute of Psychological Sciences, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China.
⁶ Zhejiang Key Laboratory for Research in Assessment of Cognitive Impairments, Hangzhou, China.
⁷ Office of the Principal, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China.

Abstract

The present two-year longitudinal study aimed to examine the relationship between depression and reasoning ability in adolescents, and further investigated the modulation effect of growth mindset on this relationship. A total of 1,961 and 1,667 Chinese adolescents participated in the study for the first year (T1) and second year (T2), respectively. The results showed that T1 depression was negatively correlated with T1 growth mindset (r = -0.35, p < 0.001), T1 reasoning (r = -0.30, p < 0.001), and T2 reasoning (r = -0.23, p < 0.001). Regression analysis revealed that T1 depression and the interaction between T1 depression and T1 growth mindset significantly predicted T1 reasoning (β = -0.220/-0.044, all ps < 0.05). After controlling for gender, age, family socioeconomic status, and T1 reasoning ability, both T1 depression and the interaction between T1 depression and T1 growth mindset still significantly predicted T2 reasoning (β = -0.104/β = 0.054, all ps < 0.05). The simple slope analysis found that the negative correlation between depression and reasoning in the high growth mindset group was weaker than that of the low growth mindset group in both T1 and T2, suggesting that growth mindset plays a significant moderating role in the relationship between depression and reasoning. In conclusion, depression was negatively correlated with reasoning ability in adolescents, in addition, growth mindset moderated the relationship between depression and reasoning.

Keywords: adolescents; cognitive ability; depression; growth mindset; reasoning ability.