Changing a Simple Belief Alters Adolescents' Cardiovascular and Neuroendocrine Responses to Social Stress

• In Event: Different Routes to the Similar Outcomes: Improving Students' Well-Being in Addition to Achievement in School

Abstract

Adolescence is often a period of tremendous stress, and dysregulated autonomic and neuroendocrine responses to social stressors are at the root of many adolescent mental and physical health problems. The research presented here builds on recent advances in social-psychological intervention to show that changing beliefs about the nature of personality produces improvements in adolescents’ autonomic and neuroendocrine responses to social stressors. To do so, these studies integrate two theoretical models that have proceeded relatively independently in the scientific literature: (1) the biopsychosocial (BPS) model of challenge and threat, which provides a mechanistic framework for understanding autonomic and neuroendocrine responses to social stress, and (2) implicit theories of personality which are beliefs that shape individuals’ appraisals of the stressors in their social environments. We hypothesized that implicit theories of personality, which are general belief systems that frame situation-specific appraisal processes, can be modified and promote adaptive appraisals and physiological reactions.

In Experiment 1 (N=60) participants completed a standardized social stress task that included public speaking and evaluative components. Before beginning the stressful task, participants were randomly assigned to incremental theory or control conditions. Incremental theory of personality taught the belief that people can change, whereas the control message describe neuroanatomy. Incremental theory participants, who had been taught that people are not stuck with a negative label for life, appraised the stressful situation as a challenge that could be overcome, and not a threat. Importantly, during stress incremental theory participants exhibited increased cardiac efficiency, decreased vasoconstriction, and reduced salivary cortisol relative to control participants.

Experiment 2 (N=205) was a longitudinal field experiment in which adolescents were randomly assigned to complete intervention or control conditions in a school setting. We collected daily diary reports of social-evaluative stressors and saliva samples taken pre- and post-intervention to assess cortisol. The focal test was a Daily Stress × Condition interaction, with greater benefits of the treatment on salivary cortisol expected on high stress days. While a naturalistic daily diary study sacrifices clarity about the nature or timing of the stressor(s), it allows for examination of improvements in real-world HPA-axis reactivity. Consistent with hypotheses the incremental theory reduced salivary cortisol levels on high-stress days measured 8-9 days post-treatment.

In prior research, the intervention materials tested here showed 9-month post-treatment effects on psychopathology, achievement, and reports of health. The current research illuminates the effects at a physiological level of analysis and suggests that incremental theory of personality, or belief-change approaches more generally, may be useful in efficiency improving outcomes in student populations—and possibly at scale.

Authors

• Jeremy Jamieson, University of Rochester

• David Scott Yeager, Stanford University

• Haekyung Lee, The University of Texas - Austin