Estimating and Understanding Effects of Teaching Teens That People Can Change

 描述（由申请人提供）：过渡到高中包含主要的社会压力，并与抑郁症和其他内在症状急剧增加相吻合。不幸的是，很难确定有效的普遍预防干预措施， 抑郁症和其他内化障碍。拟议的研究整合了社会，发展，临床和生物心理学的理论和方法，以解决这一知识差距。本研究的重点是潜在的信念或内隐理论，影响反应的压力社会环境。人格的实体理论认为人没有改变的潜力。众所周知，它会导致适应不良的反应后，社会压力，如结论，一个是“失败者”或“不讨人喜欢。“相比之下，增量理论是相信人们有改变的潜力。已经发现，它有助于更有希望的解释，社会压力可以改善。多个独立样本（N =599）的初步研究发现，一个有效的，但适时和高度有说服力的自我管理的干预措施，教导青少年个性的增量理论，可以防止抑郁症状在高中第一年增加40%，干预后9个月。然而，重要的是要估计这种影响的大小在大（N 2,000），异质样品（目标1a）。着眼于改进理论和干预，拟议的研究还将确定谁受益最多（或最少）从增量理论信息（目标1b）的学生。最后，每日日记（目标2）和实验室应激（目标3）方法将确定介导与治疗效果有关的社会认知、神经内分泌和心血管反应的原理。所有假设都得到了初步数据的支持。增量理论干预减少皮质醇超过一周，并立即心血管威胁反应的社会评价压力在实验室。总之，本研究的目的是使用大样本提供所需的证据，使用增量理论干预，以防止内化症状，伴随着过渡到高中，并揭示社会认知和生物机制。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The transition to high school contains major social stressors and coincides with a sharp increase in depression and other internalizing symptoms. Unfortunately, it has been difficult to identify effective universal preventative interventions for depression and other internalizing disorders among high school students. The proposed research integrates theories and methods across social, developmental, clinical, and biological psychology to address this gap in knowledge. This research focuses on the underlying beliefs or implicit theories that affect reactions to stressful social environments. An entity theory of personality is the belief that people do not have the potential to change. It is known to lead to maladaptive reactions in the wake of social stressors, such as the conclusion that one is a "loser" or "not likable." By contrast, an incremental theory is the belief that people have the potential to change. It has been found to facilitate more hopeful interpretations that social stressors can improve. Preliminary published research with multiple independent samples (N =599) has found that an efficient, but well-timed and highly-persuasive, self-administered intervention to teach adolescents an incremental theory of personality can prevent increases in depressive symptoms over the first year of high school by 40%, nine months post-intervention. However, it is important to estimate the size of this effect in large (N 2,000), heterogeneous samples (Aim 1a). With an eye toward improving theory and the intervention, the proposed research will also identify students who benefit the most (or least) from the incremental theory message (Aim 1b). Finally, daily-diary (Aim 2) and laboratory stress (Aim 3) methods will identify the principle mediating social-cognitive, neuroendocrine, and cardiovascular reactions that are implicated in the treatment effects. All hypotheses have received support in preliminary data. The incremental theory intervention has reduced cortisol over a week and immediate cardiovascular threat responses to social evaluative stressors in the laboratory. In summary, this research aims to use large samples to provide needed evidence about the use of an incremental theory intervention to prevent internalizing symptoms that accompany the transition to high school, and uncover social-cognitive and biological mechanisms.