We investigated if growth mindsets—the belief in the malleable nature of human attributes—are negatively related to psychological distress and if they are positively related to treatment value and active coping. In the meta-analysis, we included articles published between 1988 and 2019, written in English, that reported on mindsets as well as a qualifying dependent variable and included information required to calculate an effect size. With a random effects approach, meta-analytic results (k = 72 samples, N = 17,692) demonstrated that mindsets relate, albeit with minimal effects, to distress, treatment and coping. Specifically, there is a negative relation between growth mindsets and psychological distress (r = −0.220), a positive relation between growth mindsets and treatment value (r = 0.137) and a positive relation between growth mindsets and active coping (r = 0.207). Differences in mindset domain, assessment method of mindsets and timing of assessments moderated effects. There were not differences based on operationalization of psychological distress outcome or sample characteristics (i.e., developmental stage, diagnostic status, ethnicity). We discuss theoretical and practical applications of the findings.

我们调查了成长心态（对人类属性的可塑性的信念）是否与心理困扰负相关，是否与治疗价值和积极应对能力正相关。在荟萃分析中，我们纳入了1988年至2019年之间以英文撰写的文章，这些文章报告了心态以及合格的因变量，并包括了计算效应量所需的信息。采用随机效应方法，荟萃分析结果（k  = 72个样本，N  = 17,692）证明，尽管影响最小，但心态与痛苦，治疗和应对有关。具体而言，成长心态与心理困扰之间存在负相关关系（r = -0.220），增长心态与治疗值之间呈正相关（r  = 0.137），增长心态与积极应对之间呈正相关（r = 0.207）。心态域，心态评估方法和评估时机的差异产生了适度的影响。根据心理困扰结果或样本特征（即发育阶段，诊断状态，种族）的可操作性，没有差异。我们讨论了发现的理论和实际应用。