Personalized stress optimization intervention to reduce adolescents' anxiety: A randomized controlled trial...

Area of Science:

• Adolescent mental health
• Psychological interventions
• Stress and anxiety research

Background:

• Anxiety symptoms are highly prevalent in adolescents, necessitating accessible interventions.
• Stress and anxiety frequently co-occur during adolescence, making stress-focused interventions a potential strategy.
• Traditional stress interventions view stress as harmful, but stress optimization proposes potential positive outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of a single-session stress optimization intervention for reducing adolescent anxiety.
• To identify conditions under which the stress optimization intervention is most effective.
• To explore personalized intervention effects using machine learning.

Main Methods:

• A large-scale randomized controlled trial (N=1779, ages 12-18) was conducted.
• Participants reported perceived stress, stress mindset, and anxiety over two months.
• Conservative Bayesian causal forest analysis was used to assess treatment and heterogeneous effects.

Main Results:

• The stress optimization intervention significantly reduced anxiety symptoms in the school context over two months (0.87 posterior probability).
• Adolescents with higher baseline anxiety and perceived stress showed the most substantial anxiety reductions (SDs -0.18 and -0.11).
• Machine learning identified heterogeneous intervention effects, indicating personalized benefits.

Conclusions:

• A single-session stress optimization intervention is effective in reducing adolescent anxiety.
• The intervention shows particular promise for adolescents experiencing high levels of stress and anxiety.
• This approach offers a potentially cost-effective and scalable solution for adolescent mental health support.