Socioeconomic Background and Academic Achievement : Understanding the Mediating Roles of Finnish Adolescent Students' Growth Mindsets and Intrinsic Motivation
Year: 2025
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The idea that the students’ socioeconomic background should not be a substantive determinant of how well they learn in school underlies the Finnish education system. However, recent reports of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) from different cycles of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) suggest that the Finnish education system shows signs of declining equity. In other words, students’ academic achievement has become sensitive to their parents’ or guardians’ education, occupation, and wealth. At the same time, a scrutiny of the OCED reports also shows that students differ in academic achievement not only based on their socioeconomic backgrounds, but also by their growth mindsets and intrinsic motivation. These observations appear to suggest that issues of educational equity go beyond material advantages to psychological factors. Therefore, this study investigated the dual mediating roles of a growth mindset and intrinsic motivation in the link between Finnish adolescent students’ socioeconomic background and their academic achievement by testing a model grounded in theoretical assumptions. The study conducted a structural equation modelling (SEM) using a sample of 10,239 15-year-old Finnish students (comprising 51.2.8% boys and 48.8% girls) in grade 7 or higher who participated in PISA 2022. The results revealed that, a growth mindset partially mediated the association between socioeconomic background and academic achievement, albeit a small effect size (Indirect effect=0.0020, SE=0.0002, 95% CI [0.0017, 0.0023]). The study found no evidence that the mediation of a growth mindset moderated the socioeconomic background-achievement link. The mediating effect of socioeconomic background on academic achievement through intrinsic motivation was statistically significant (Indirect effect=0.0113, SE=0.0006, 95% CI [0.0102, 0.0123]). These findings provide evidence that Finnish adolescent students’ growth mindsets do not temper the link between their socioeconomic backgrounds and academic achievement but reinforces the importance of indirect pathways. Also, Finnish adolescent students’ intrinsic motivation seems to be a stronger path linking their socioeconomic background and academic achievement. These findings are discussed within the framework of mindset and self-determination theories and situated within the Finnish context.
Source: Doria (University of Helsinki)
Author: Kyereh, Ebenezer Kwame
Institution: Åbo Akademi University
Language: English
Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7115301871