Determining the Effectiveness of Growth Mindset Training Program on Self-Efficacy and Impulse Control of Junior Female High School Students with Behavioral Problems

The evolutionary changes of the brain during adolescence may contribute to emotional reactivity, poor decision–making, and behavioral issues in adolescents. Self–efficacy is one of the most crucial aspects of adolescent adjustment. One of the emotional components prevalent in adolescents is impulse control, defined as the ability to resist a dangerous impulse or drive. Since the psychological symptoms, such as poor impulse control and self–efficacy in adolescents with behavioral problems, increase these individuals' psychological vulnerability, the early diagnosis and treatment of these negative symptoms and the endorsement of self–efficacy and impulse control are among the top research priorities. Developing a growth mindset holds promising results in this respect. Thus, this study aims to determine the effectiveness of the growth mindset training program on adolescents with behavioral difficulties, self–efficacy, and impulse control.

The quasi–experimental research employed a pretest–posttest and two–month follow–up design with a control group. This study's statistical population comprised all adolescent girls aged 12 to 16 who attended the first high school period in Tehran Province, Iran, between 2021 and 2022. Using purposive sampling, 30 students were selected and randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. The inclusion criteria were as follows: getting a score higher than the cut–off score (score 65) on the Youth Self–Report Scale (YSR) (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001), being 12 to 16 years old, willing parents and teachers to participate in the research, and having normal intelligence according to the academic file. The exclusion criteria were as follows: lack of motivation of the participants in answering the questions of the questionnaire, absence of more than three training sessions, and being subjected to a similar training program affecting the research findings. The study data were collected during therapy sessions using the YSR, the General Self–efficacy Scale (Jerusalem & Schwarzer, 1981), and the Emotional Intelligence Inventory (Bar–On, 1997). The students in the experimental group participated in the growth mindset training program over 5 weeks in 10 one–hour sessions. However, no treatment sessions were held for the control group. Data analysis was done using descriptive (mean, standard deviation) and inferential statistics (analysis of variance with repeated measures and the Bonferroni post hoc test) in SPSS version 22. The significance level of statistical tests was set at p ≤ 0.05.

Findings showed that the group, time, and time and group interaction effects on self–efficacy and impulse control variables were significant (p<0.05). In the experimental group, the posttest and follow–up scores of self–efficacy and impulse control variables increased significantly (p<0.001) compared to the pretest scores. Also, there was no significant difference (p=1.000) in the scores of the mentioned variables between the posttest and follow–up stages in the experimental group, which indicated the continued effectiveness of the intervention in the follow–up stage.

Based on the results, the growth mindset training program effectively promotes self–efficacy and impulse control. Therefore, we suggest an effective therapeutic intervention method along with other existing therapeutic approaches to promote self–efficacy and impulse control in girls with behavioral problems.