The direct effect of SES on achievement dominates: the controlled direct effect accounts for about 98% of the total SES effect in math¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · associational r2 · q3
Currency · newest study 2025 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? Students from lower SES backgrounds score 0.587 SD lower in mathematics than higher SES peers (p < 0.01). → Madia 2025 q3 i? The controlled direct effect accounts for 98% of the total effect in mathematics, 97.7% in science, and 97.8% in reading when closing the sample mindset gap. → Madia 2025 (2)

Evidence¶

Madia 2025¶

Madia, J. E., Gruijters, R. J., Raabe, I. J. & Hübner, N. (2025). Growth mindset and socioeconomic inequality in academic achievement across seventy-three PISA countries. npj Science of Learning. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-025-00365-8

q3 · i? · associational · r2

Total effect from the four-way decomposition of PISA 2022 math scores across 73 countries, averaged over countries with country fixed effects; Table 1 reports TE = -0.587 (SE 0.003).

"Students from lower SES backgrounds score 0.587 standard deviations lower in mathematics compared to their higher SES peers ( p < 0.01)."

Madia 2025 (2)¶

Madia, J. E., Gruijters, R. J., Raabe, I. J. & Hübner, N. (2025). Growth mindset and socioeconomic inequality in academic achievement across seventy-three PISA countries. npj Science of Learning. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-025-00365-8

q3 · i? · associational · r2

Results section comparison across the three PISA subjects from the same decomposition, showing the SES effect operates overwhelmingly through direct pathways rather than through growth mindset.

"The controlled direct effects (CDE) remain dominant across all subjects, accounting for 98% of the total effect in mathematics, 97.7% in science, and 97.8% in reading when closing the sample gap in growth mindset."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Growth mindset mediates only a small share (about 2.9–3.2%) of the effect of SES on academic achievement across 73 countries — related
• The mediated interaction between SES and growth mindset is small but positive (about 0.006), indicating only minimal moderation of the SES effect — related
• The proportion of the SES effect mediated by growth mindset varies across countries, reaching at most 0.11 in a few countries while most fall between 0 and 0.08 — related
• Teachers' mathematics anxiety is positively associated with the mathematics anxiety of their low-SES students via a teacher-anxiety-by-FARM interaction — related