A new study demonstrates how intelligence and many other abilities are not fixed traits, but really depend on the growth mindset of the parent.
According to Mei Elansary, a paediatric specialist at Boston Medical Center, “a maternal growth mindset is the belief that you can grow your abilities through work and effort, and that I can help my children learn new things and grow and expand their abilities. Conversely, a maternal fixed mindset is the belief that abilities are going to stay the same over time, no matter how hard I work or how much investment as a mom I put into my child’s learning.” Along with five other scholars, Elansary found that a maternal growth mindset could mitigate the negative effects of stress on mothers in the early months of a child’s life and promote brain development. They also found that children of mothers with high levels of stress and a growth mindset were protected from the negative effects of high levels of stress.
The researchers also indicate that while it is not possible to fully eliminate stress in parents' lives, any intervention that encourages a growth mindset over a fixed mindset will benefit both the child and the parent.
