Psychological Profiles of Trait Mindfulness and School Climate in Adolescents: Examining Growth Mindset as a Precursor to Social-Emotional Competence

Background: Adolescents’ social-emotional competence (SEC) is a fundamental aspect of their psychological well-being. Although growth mindset is widely recognized as a pivotal developmental asset, its role in predicting how internal resources, such as trait mindfulness, interact with external environments like school climate to shape SEC remains poorly understood. The present study addresses this gap by treating growth mindset as a precursor to the distinct psychological profiles defined by mindfulness and school climate, while subsequently evaluating how these patterns predict variations in SEC. Methods: Bolck-Croon-Hagenaars (BCH) A total of 1153 Chinese adolescents completed measures of growth mindset, trait mindfulness, school climate, and SEC. Data were analyzed using Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) within a robust three-step framework. This approach utilized the R3STEP algorithm to examine growth mindset as a predictor of profile membership and the Bolck-Croon-Hagenaars (BCH) method to evaluate profile-specific differences in SEC as a distal outcome, thereby ensuring stable estimates by explicitly accounting for classification uncertainty. Results: Regression analysis confirmed that growth mindset positively predicted SEC. LPA identified four distinct patterns based on trait mindfulness and school climate: (1) High Mindfulness-High Support (High Resource Integration, HRI); (2) High Mindfulness-Low Support (Intrinsically Advantaged, IA); (3) Low Mindfulness-High Support (Environmentally Dependent, ED); and (4) Low Mindfulness-Low Support (Dual-Risk, DR). Using the R3STEP procedure, growth mindset was treated as a primary antecedent that significantly predicted profile membership, with higher scores increasing the likelihood of assignment to the HRI profile. Furthermore, the BCH method revealed significant variations in SEC across these groups, with the HRI subgroup exhibiting the highest level of competence. Conclusions: The findings underscore the predictive role of a growth mindset and the existence of heterogeneous adolescent profiles characterized by distinct patterns of trait mindfulness and perceived school climate. The findings suggest that tailored, profile-specific interventions that consider both individual psychological resources and environmental context may be more effective than a one-size-fits-all approach for enhancing adolescents’ SEC.