Parent-Child Single-Session Growth Mindset Intervention on Adolescent Depression and Anxiety Problems

Depression, Anxiety Clinical Trial

Official title: Effects of Parent-Child Single-Session Growth Mindset Intervention on Adolescent Depression and Anxiety Problems: A Two-Arm Waitlist Randomised Controlled Trial

Status Not yet recruiting

Clinical Trial Summary

Depression and anxiety are common mental health problems among adolescents worldwide. In Hong Kong, one in every four secondary school students reports clinical-level depression or anxiety symptoms. Extant research has found that a fixed mindset on intelligence and emotions and failure-is-debilitating belief are closely related to more depression and anxiety symptoms, hopelessness and suicidality. At the same time, recent research also points to the importance of parental mindset. Parents are the primary social support of adolescents; parental belief systems can strongly influence children's affect, behaviour and mental health. However, the effects of parent-child mindset interventions on a child's internalising problems have not yet been empirically examined. As emerging evidence has shown the promise of single-session interventions on reducing and preventing youth internalising problems, this project develops and examines a parent and child single-session intervention on mindsets of intelligence, failure and emotion (PC-SMILE) - to tackle depression and anxiety in young people and promote parental well-being. Using a two-arm randomised controlled trial, the proposed study will examine the effectiveness of PC-SMILE on reducing depression and anxiety symptoms among children, reducing parental anxiety, enhancing perceived control and parent-child relationships. A total of 366 parent-child dyads will be recruited from eight secondary schools and randomly assigned to either the PC-SMILE intervention group or the no-intervention waitlist control group. The PC-SMILE is approximately 45 minutes in length. Parent and child mental health and family relationship will be assessed at three time points: baseline before intervention (T1), within two weeks post-intervention (T2) and three months post-intervention (T3). A pilot test (n = 9) has supported the feasibility and acceptability of the PC-SMILE intervention. We hypothesise that the PC-SMILE intervention will significantly improve child depression and anxiety and parent anxiety (primary outcome) and significantly improve secondary outcomes, including child perceived control over emotion, children's and parents' hopelessness, psychological wellbeing, and parent-child relationships. The intention-to-treat principle and linear-regression-based maximum likelihood multi-level models will be used for data analysis. The project brings together experts in mindset research, family therapy, statistics, youth depression, and psychiatry. The Principal Investigator's strong connection with schools ensures the feasibility of the study. This study will not only provide evidence on parent-child growth mindset intervention for adolescent internalising problems but can also serve as a scalable and accessible intervention for improving the well-being of young people and their parents.

Clinical Trial Description

n/a

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Anxiety Disorders
• Depression
• Depression, Anxiety
• Depressive Disorder

• NCT number: NCT05493865
• Study type: Interventional
• Source: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
• Contact: Shimin Zhu, phD
• Phone: +85251187809
• Email: jasmine.zhu@polyu.edu.hk
• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: January 1, 2023
• Completion date: December 31, 2024