Using structural equation modeling (SEM), researchers examined whether there was a general dominating factor that governed students' implicit theories of intelligence, morality, personality, creativity, and social intelligence. The possible age-related changes of students' implicit theories were also studied. In all, 1,650 elementary and junior high school students (grades 5 to 10) in a large Chinese city participated in the study. A set of questions about the personal attributes being studied was developed, and SEM was used to compare various competitive first- and second-order factor models. Results show a general and dominating implicit theory affecting students' beliefs about the individual personal attributes. In addition, students' entity theories seemed to be stronger as they grew older. However, whether these trends result from natural cognitive maturity or socialization remains to be explored. (Contains 18 references.) (SLD)