Effectiveness of Growth Mindset Training on Emotional Regulation of Adolescents with Behavioral Problems

One of the most controversial topics among researchers is to identify and introduce efficient and effective methods to improve human intelligence capacity in critical stages of development. Thus, the present study was conducted to examine the effectiveness of the growth mindset training program on the emotional regulation of adolescents with behavioral problems.

In terms of purpose, this research was practical. The method was quasi-experimental, and a pre-test, and post-test design with a control group and follow-up was used. The statistical population of this research included all adolescent girls between 12 and 16 years old who were studying in the secondary schools of Tehran in 1400-1401. Among them, 30 people were selected by the convenience sampling method and randomly placed in the experimental and the control group. The experimental group received ten one-hour sessions of growth mindset training; while no intervention was considered for the control group. The data collection tool in the present study included the scale of Adolescents Self-Report of Behavioral Problems (Eishenbach & Rescola, 1997) and The Emotion Regulation Checklist for Children and Adolescents (Shiltz & Sichi, 1997). The collected data were analyzed using the statistical method of mixed ANOVA and Bonferroni post hoc test by SPSS version 26.

The results showed that compared to the control group, people in the experimental group who received the growth mindset training program had higher emotion regulation scores in the post-test (p<0001) and this result persisted through the follow-up stage (p<0001).

This intervention method, which is based on the mental flexibility principle, can be used to improve mental abilities. Therefore, using this treatment method is suggested to improve mental abilities.