Objectives: Growth mindset, positive emotion, and character strengths have been recently addressed in positive education. The current study aimed to examine their roles in the relationships between children’s exposure to emotional neglect and emotional abuse in the family and their academic motivation and internalizing symptoms.
Method: 608 students from three primary schools in Hong Kong completed a set of questionnaires including the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, Academic Motivation, Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21), Incremental Self Belief Scale, Positive Emotion in PERMA-Profiler, and Use of Character Strengths. PROCESS for SPSS was applied to examine the hypothesized mediation models.
Results: In the domain of academic motivation, positive emotion and growth mindset mediated the relationship in tandem between emotional neglect and academic motivation (b= -0.018). Character strengths moderated the mediating effect of growth mindset in the relationship between emotional abuse and academic motivation (index= 0.039, CI=[0.008, 0.070]).
In the domain of internalizing symptoms, growth mindset mediated the association between emotional abuse with depression (b= 0.012). Furthermore, character strengths moderated this mediating model (index= -0.011, CI=[-0.024, -0.001]).
Conclusion: Positive emotion could serve as an approach to fostering a growth mindset in promoting academic motivation for children who have experienced emotional neglect. Through growth mindset, knowledge of use of character strengths could buffer the negative effects of emotional abuse on children’s academic motivation and depression. It implies that different approaches with elements of positive education should be adopted specifically for students who are vulnerable to differentiated family adversities.

Authors:
Xuying Xie, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Sylvia Kwok, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

About the Presenter(s)
Ms Xuying XIE is a University Doctoral Student at City University of Hong Kong in Hong Kong

See this presentation on the full schedule – Wednesday Schedule

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