When do the effects of single‐session interventions persist? Testing the mindset + supportive context hypothesis in a longitudinal randomized trial

Abstract

BackgroundSingle‐session interventions have the potential to address young people's mental health needs at scale, but their effects are heterogeneous. We tested whether the mindset + supportive context hypothesis could help explain when intervention effects persist or fade over time. The hypothesis posits that interventions are more effective in environments that support the intervention message. We tested this hypothesis using the synergistic mindsets intervention, a preventative treatment for stress‐related mental health symptoms that helps students appraise stress as a potential asset in the classroom (e.g., increasing oxygenated blood flow) rather than debilitating. In an introductory college course, we examined whether intervention‐consistent messages from instructors sustained changes in appraisals over time, as well as impacts on students' predisposition to try demanding academic tasks that could enhance learning.MethodsWe randomly assigned 1675 students in the course to receive the synergistic mindsets intervention (or a control activity) at the beginning of the semester, and subsequently, to receive intervention‐supportive messages from their instructor (or neutral messages) four times throughout the term. We collected weekly measures of students' appraisals of stress in the course and their predisposition to take on academic challenges. Trial‐registration: OSF.io; DOI: 10.17605/osf.io/fchyn.ResultsA conservative Bayesian analysis indicated that receiving both the intervention and supportive messages led to the greatest increases in positive stress appraisals (0.35 SD; 1.00 posterior probability) and challenge‐seeking predisposition (2.33 percentage points; 0.94 posterior probability), averaged over the course of the semester. In addition, intervention effects grew larger throughout the semester when complemented by supportive instructor messages, whereas without these messages, intervention effects shrank somewhat over time.ConclusionsThis study shows, for the first time, that supportive cues in local contexts can be the difference in whether a single‐session intervention's effects fade over time or persist and even amplify.

The Effect of Mindset Interventions on Stress and Academic Motivation in College Students

“…A meta-analysis on single-session interventions on psychiatric problems in adolescents found that the interventions had the highest effect size for lasting effects on anxiety, which is similar to the present study's focus on stress in young adults (Schleider & Weisz, 2017). Another study specifically examined the longitudinal effects of a single-session synergistic mindset intervention (Hecht et al, 2023). At the beginning of the semester, U.S. college students were randomly assigned to receive a 30-minute synergistic mindset or a control intervention (lesson about the brain).…”

“…Subsequently, half of the students in each group received four 5-minute supportive messages related to the synergistic mindset whereas the other half received 5-minute neutral messages about assessing their learning progress periodically over the remainder of the semester (15-week semester). They found that the synergistic mindset intervention was effective in reducing fixed mindset beliefs and increasing stress-is-enhancing beliefs immediately after the intervention and at 3-weeks post-intervention similar to previous findings (Yeager et al, 2022); however, they found that receiving brief continued supportive messages made the initial intervention's effects stronger over time (Hecht et al, 2023). Overall, single-session interventions are promising low-cost, accessible options that need further exploration.…”

“…Furthermore, since we only assessed participants at one time point, we do not know how long the effects of the short intervention lasted. While single-session mindset interventions have been shown to have long-term effects (e.g., Heaman et al, 2023;Hecht et al, 2023;Smith & Capuzzi, 2019), it is possible that this shorter intervention will not have sustained effects over time. Including brief "booster" sessions after the intervention similar to Hecht et al (2023) would potentially be valuable and should be examined in future research.…”