Effects of a single-session implicit theories of personality intervention on recovery from social stress and long-term psychological functioning in early adolescents.

 描述(申请人提供)：近年来，预防青少年心理健康问题的工作取得了很大进展。然而，这些进步并没有在很大程度上降低青少年精神疾病的发病率。因此，迫切需要新的、可扩展的和低成本的方法来预防青年的心理健康问题。理想情况下，这样的方法应该是以机制为目标的：也就是说，它们将作用于心理障碍背后的特定发展过程。这项拟议的研究旨在通过测试教授渐进式人格理论的单节干预，或者相信一个人的人格是可塑性的--与实体人格理论相反，或者相信一个人的人格是固定和不可改变的--是否可以加强从社会压力中恢复，并防止青春期早期焦虑和抑郁的发展。与增量理论相比，个人特质的实体理论在青少年中表现出更多的焦虑和抑郁，表现出横截面和前瞻性关系。此外，单次会议增量人格理论干预减少了青少年社区样本中抑郁症状的发展，支持这些理论作为强有力的预防目标，即使在简短的形式下也是如此。具体地说，根据NIMH测试新干预措施的实验治疗学方法，该项目有两个目标。目的1是评估内隐理论干预对先前研究确定的两种候选行动机制或目标的影响：唤醒(通过社交压力后的生理反应测量，以及自我报告的焦虑)和丧失(在这里，感觉到行为控制的丧失)。在基于实验室的社会压力诱导之后，这项研究将测试接受干预的参与者(N=45)是否会更快地从压力中恢复，如唤醒测量(心率变异性；呼吸性窦性心律失常； 与未接受干预的参与者(n=45)相比，受试者的皮肤电反应)和自我报告的丧失(在干预后或3个月、6个月和9个月随访时感觉到的控制力增加)。目的2是评估单次增量理论干预对焦虑和抑郁的9个月的效果。这项研究将测试与控制方案相比，干预是否能防止焦虑和抑郁的发展；它还将评估这种变化是否是上述两个目标(唤醒；丧失)变化的直接结果。随着时间的推移，接受干预的年轻人在焦虑和抑郁方面的积极轨迹预计会比那些处于控制状态的年轻人更多。这项研究还将测试这些轨迹是否受到目标1中描述的目标变化的影响。最后，无论目标1和目标2的结果如何，基线、干预后和9个月的测量将被用来绘制内隐理论、针对这些理论的干预措施、社会压力恢复以及青少年焦虑和抑郁之间的纵向联系。研究结果可能表明，一种成本效益高、可扩展的干预措施可以改善青年的弹性和心理健康。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Efforts to prevent mental health problems in youths have advanced greatly in recent years. However, these advances have not reduced rates of youth mental illness on a large scale. Thus, a great need exists for novel, scalable, and low-cost approaches to preventing mental health problems in youth. Ideally, such approaches would be mechanism-targeted: that is, they would act on specific developmental processes that underlie psychological disorders. The proposed research aims to address this need by testing whether a single-session intervention teaching incremental theories of personality, or the belief that one's personality is malleable-as opposed to entity theories of personality, or the belief that one's personality is fixed and unchangeable-can strengthen recovery from social stress and prevent the development of anxiety and depression during early adolescence. Compared to incremental theories, entity theories of personal traits have demonstrated cross- sectional and prospective relations with greater anxiety and depression in youths. Further, a single-session incremental personality theories intervention reduced the development of depressive symptoms in a community sample of adolescents, supporting these theories as powerful prevention targets, even when taught in a brief format. Specifically, in line with the NIMH's experimental therapeutics approach to testing novel interventions, this project has two aims. Aim 1 is to evaluate the effect of the implicit theories intervention on two candidate mechanisms of action, or targets, identified by prior research: arousal (measure via physiological reactivity following social stress, as well as self-reported anxiety) and loss (here, perceived loss of behavioral control) in youths 12-15 years of age. Following a lab-based social stress induction, this study will test whether participants receiving the intervention (N=45) will recover from stress more rapidly, as indicated by measures of arousal (heart rate variability; respiratory sinus arrhythmia; galvanic skin response) and self- reported loss (increased perceived control at post-intervention or 3-, 6-, and 9-month follow-ups) compared to participants who do not receive the intervention (n =45). Aim 2 is to evaluate the effects of the single-session incremental theories intervention on anxiety and depression over nine months. This study will test whether the intervention, compared to a control protocol, prevents the development of anxiety and depression; it will also assess whether this change is a direct result of shifts in the two aforementioned targets (arousal; loss). More positive trajectories in anxiety and depression are predicted for youth receiving the intervention, relative to those in the control condition, over time. The study will aso test whether these trajectories are mediated by changes in the targets described in Aim 1. Finally, regardless of outcomes for Aims 1 and 2, baseline, postintervention, and 9-month measures will be used to map longitudinal links among implicit theories, interventions targeting those theories, social stress recovery, and youth anxiety and depression. Findings may suggest a cost-effective, scalable intervention that improves youth resiliency and mental health.