Two largely separate bodies of empirical research have shown
that academic achievement is influenced by structural factors, such
as socioeconomic background, and psychological factors, such as
students’ beliefs about their abilities. In this research, we use a
nationwide sample of high school students from Chile to investigate how these factors interact on a systemic level. Confirming
prior research, we find that family income is a strong predictor
of achievement. Extending prior research, we find that a growth
mindset (the belief that intelligence is not fixed and can be developed) is a comparably strong predictor of achievement and that
it exhibits a positive relationship with achievement across all of
the socioeconomic strata in the country. Furthermore, we find that
students from lower-income families were less likely to hold a
growth mindset than their wealthier peers, but those who did
hold a growth mindset were appreciably buffered against the deleterious effects of poverty on achievement: students in the lowest
10th percentile of family income who exhibited a growth mindset showed academic performance as high as that of fixed mindset
students from the 80th income percentile. These results suggest that
students’ mindsets may temper or exacerbate the effects of economic
disadvantage on a systemic level.