Background Social-emotional learning (SEL) is a core educational goal, yet little is known about how adolescents’ cognitive beliefs, body-related self-perceptions, and everyday health behavior jointly relate to social-emotional skills across diverse cultural contexts and school stages. Objective Based on mindset theory and self-regulation perspectives, we examined an integrated Mind-Body-Behavior framework in which growth mindset, positive body image, and health behavior show a theoretically specified pattern of associated with adolescents’ social-emotional skills. Sample Participants were 62,105 adolescents from 15 regions where data were drawn from the OECD 2023 Study on Social and Emotional Skills. Methods A two-stage quantitative design combined structural equation modeling and machine learning. Results Growth mindset was associated with social-emotional skills both directly and indirectly associations via body image and health behavior. The direct association was substantially stronger than the combined indirect associations, indicating partial rather than complete support for the full proposed pattern. Scalar invariance across the seven clusters was not supported, so cluster-level comparisons were treated as descriptive. Associations differed between cohorts: the association between growth mindset and body image was stronger in the younger cohort, whereas the association between health behavior and social-emotional skills was stronger in the older cohort. Conclusions The study contributes an integrated view of how beliefs, body-related self-perception, and health behavior relate to social-emotional skills. The framework shows that cognitive, body-related, and behavioral domains each relate to adolescents’ social-emotional skills and that these relations change between school stages.
Background Multimodal enrichment can enhance second language (L2) vocabulary learning, but most evidence comes from studies with extensive training; it is unclear whether similar benefits occur with limited exposure. Aims This study investigated how ten brief instances of gesture- and picture-based enrichment influenced adults’ learning and long-term retention of concrete and abstract L2 vocabulary. Sample Fifty-two German-speaking adults were recruited from teacher education programs at the University of Leipzig. Methods Using a fully within-participants design, each learner studied abstract and concrete L2 nouns under three conditions: listening only (no enrichment), listening while viewing related pictures (picture enrichment), and listening while viewing and performing related gestures (gesture enrichment). Each word was presented ten times across five training sessions. Word learning was assessed using free recall, L1–L2 translation, L2–L1 translation tasks at three retention intervals (day 8, month 2, and month 6). Results Both gesture and picture enrichment significantly improved learning of abstract words compared to no enrichment. For concrete words, performance did not differ across conditions. Gesture enrichment did not outperform picture enrichment at any time point. Memory performance declined over time, particularly for abstract words, while concrete word performance remained more stable. Conclusions Even brief exposure to gestural and pictorial enrichment can enhance the long-term retention of abstract L2 vocabulary. More extensive training may be required for gesture-based benefits to exceed those of picture enrichment. The findings establish boundary conditions for multimodal learning and inform both theoretical accounts of sensorimotor enrichment and practical approaches to language instruction.
Background Mathematical reasoning involves perceptual, motoric, and affective processes alongside cognitive processes. While research on embodied geometric reasoning has examined the influences of gestures and spatial abilities, the role of affective processes remains under-researched. Aims This study investigated how an affective process, spatial anxiety, alongside spatial ability, functions as a component of an integrated cognitive-affective spatial system that predicts geometric reasoning and gesture production during geometry proof tasks. Sample Participants were 94 undergraduate students from a large Midwestern US university. Methods Participants completed spatial ability and anxiety measures, then provided verbal justifications for evaluating the truth of eight geometry conjectures. Video data was coded for quality of mathematical insight and proof, and for gesture production. Mixed-effects logistic regression models analyzed relationships between spatial systems and three outcomes: mathematical insight (correct gist), mathematically valid transformational proof (a form of deductive proof), and representational gesture occurrence (dynamic and nondynamic). Results Spatial ability positively predicted insight, proof, and dynamic gestures. Spatial anxiety significantly moderated the relationship between spatial ability and both insight and proof. At high spatial anxiety levels, the benefits of spatial ability for proof were substantially diminished. Participants with lower spatial ability and higher spatial anxiety were more likely to produce nondynamic representational gestures, suggesting cognitive offloading to embodied processes. Conclusions Spatial anxiety acts as a moderator between spatial ability and geometric reasoning, impacting mathematical insights, proof construction, and gesture production. Findings highlight the importance of considering affective processes alongside verbal and nonverbal cognitive processes in models of embodied mathematical cognition.
