Personal Belief in a Just World and the Growth Mindset in Chinese Adolescence: Prospective Between-Person and Within-Person Associations

Individual differences in personal belief in a just world (PBJW) and growth mindset can predict people’s emotions and actions when faced with difficulties, but little is known about how the two attributes influence each other during adolescence. This study analyzed the longitudinal trajectories of PBJW and growth mindset scores and the bidirectional longitudinal associations between them with structural equation modeling. Chinese adolescents (N = 10,350, M_age = 16.62, SD = 0.81, 62.2% males, at Wave 1) completed self-report questionnaires on three occasions over 3 academic years. The results of latent growth models (LGMs) indicate that both PBJW and growth mindset scores increased linearly over the study period. In the cross-lagged panel models (CLPMs), a bidirectional interaction between PBJW and growth mindset scores was detected. In the random intercept cross-lagged panel models (RI-CLPMs), the results suggest that being treated more fairly reinforced individuals’ belief in the malleability of personal abilities at the within-person level, but not vice versa. Overall, the effect of PBJW on growth mindset scores was robust, whereas the effect of growth mindset scores on PBJW was only present at the between-person level. These results provide evidence of an interaction between PBJW and a growth mindset, and highlight the need to distinguish between- and within-person effects.