Stress in teenagers can be reduced by a single 30 minute online training session that aims at encouraging a growth mindset and seeing the body's reaction to stress as positive, according to scientists.
A study that involved more than 4,000 secondary school pupils and university undergraduates shows that the intervention could be a low-cost, effective treatment for adolescent stress.
The approach focuses on seeing stress as an opportunity for growth and interpreting physiological responses such as a racing heart as potentially performance-enhancing.
Dr. David Yeager, a psychologist at the University of Texas at Austin, is the first author of the study, attempting to change teenagers' beliefs about stressful situations and their responses to stressful situations. We want to make teenagers realize that when you re doing something hard and your body starts to feel stressed, that could be a good thing. Mental health problems are on the rise in UK teenagers, with rates of probable mental health disorders in six to 16 year-olds increasing from one in nine 12% in 2017 to one in six 17% in 2021, and there are long waits for access to services in some regions.
The growth mindset concept is widely popularized in sports and education psychology. A pounding heart can help mobilise energy and boost oxygen flow to the brain, in addition to the new element, in which people are encouraged to reinterpret the physical signs of stress as beneficial.
Over a series of six randomised controlled trials, Yeager and colleagues found that the 30-minute intervention appeared to have powerful and lasting effects on physiological responses to stress, academic performance and mental health.
In one trial, 166 students were given either the intervention or a placebo session in which they learned about the brain. They were then surprised by a request to give an impromptu speech about their strengths and weaknesses in front of peer evaluators who had been trained to create an unsupportive atmosphere by sighing and frowning. The participants who had been given the intervention had lower stress responses based on heart rate and other physiological measures.
In another experiment, the intervention was shown to influence academic achievement nine months later, with students 14% more likely to pass classes at the end of the academic year. Teenagers who had done the training reported lower levels of general anxiety several months later.
Yeager said that approach went against the pervasive ethic of self-care that often appears to view stress as uniquely negative and suggests people go do yoga or have a camomile tea. That's a way to distract yourself but it doesn't help deal with the underlying cause of stress.