Prevention of Depression and Bullying in Adolescents by Means of an Intervention Based on Implicit Theories of Personality
Phase: NA
Conditions: Depression, Bullying
Sponsor: University of Deusto

 
 
STUDY TITLE: 
PREVENTION OF DEPRESSION AND BULLYING IN ADOLESCENTS BY MEANS OF AN 
INTERVENTION BASED ON IMPLICIT THEORIES OF PERSONALITY 
 
 
PROJECT NUMBER: 
PSI2015-68426-R  
(Ministry of the Economy and Competitiveness, Spanish Government) 
 
PI:  
Esther Calvete Zumalde, PhD, University of Deusto 
Research team:  
Izaskun Orue Sola, PhD, University of Deusto 
Liria Fernández-González, PhD, University of Deusto 
Anik Zubizarreta Arturo, MD, PhD, University of Deusto 
Collaborators: 
David Scott Yeager, PhD, University of Texas at Austin 
Todd Little, PhD, Texas Tech University 
 
SEPTEMBER, 2016 
 
 
 
 

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I. BACKGROUND 
Depression and aggressive behavior are psychological problems of crucial clinical 
and social relevance. According to data from the World Health Organization (WHO, 
2012), more than 350 million people suffer from major depressive disorder, which 
constitutes one of the most important causes of disability. Depression involves great 
suffering in people, contributing to significant difficulties in their social, academic, and 
professional life. There is a dramatic increase of depression rates in adolescence. 
Moreover, depression in adolescence is the most powerful predictor of experiencing 
depression in adulthood. On the other hand, aggressive behavior is also highly 
prevalent in our society. Often arises early but increases in severity over time. As 
children enter adolescence aggressions towards peers give way to other modalities 
such as dating violence and violence against parents. Therefore, preventing the 
development of depression and aggressive behavior in childhood and adolescence is 
invaluable. Unfortunately, although there are adequate interventions for adolescents 
at risk of depression, results for the majority of the previous universal interventions 
have been poor. In the case of aggressive behavior current preventive interventions 
are expensive in terms of duration and involve working with children, their parents, 
and educators.  
The current project will test the efficacy of an Implicit Theory of Personality (ITP) 
intervention, which has provided excellent results in US both for depression and 
externalizing problems such as aggressive behavior. The project includes two studies, 
one focused on depression and another one focused on aggressive behavior. In 
addition, we will evaluate at which developmental stage the intervention is more 
effective. Finally, we will examine the moderation role of sex. The project includes 
biological data in a subsample of participants. Therefore, the project will contribute 
from a biopsychosocial and interdisciplinary perspective to the development of 
universal preventive interventions for depression and aggressive behavior, two 
important psychological problems in modern societies. 
Preventive approaches to depression and aggressive behavior 
Several depression prevention programs have been developed, such as the 
Coping with Stress program (Clarke et al., 1995), the Blues Program (Stice, Burton, 
Bearman, & Rohde, 2007), the UK Resilience Program (Challen, Machin, & Gillham, 
2014), and the Penn Resiliency Program (Cardemil, Reivich, Beevers, Seligman, & 
James, 2006). Most prevention programs have targeted factors that have been found 
to increase risk for future onset of depression or increases in depressive symptoms, 
such as negative cognitions, social skill deficits, and ruminative style. The results from 
meta-analytic reviews of the effects of depression prevention programs for youth 
indicate that although results are good for indicated and selective preventive 
interventions, the average effects of universal preventive interventions on depressive 
symptoms from pretest to posttest are small (Mychailyszyn, Brodman, Read, & 

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Kendall, 2012; Stice, Shaw, Bohon, Marti, & Rohde, 2009). Interestingly, Stice et al. 
(2009) found that relatively shorter prevention programs produced significantly larger 
intervention effects than did longer prevention programs. Therefore, the authors 
concluded that long programs may not appeal to youth, which causes greater attrition 
and attenuated intervention effects. Thus, they recommended the use of brief 
interventions for future studies. 
Regarding aggressive behavior several multicomponent interventions with 
elements directed towards children and adolescents as well as towards their parents 
and teachers have been developed and have been found to be effective. Some 
noteworthy examples are the Coping Power (Lochman & Wells, 2002), the Fast Track 
(Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group, 2002), the Montreal Preventive 
Treatment Program (Tremblay, Masse, Pagani, & Vitaro, 1996) and the Incredible Years 
programs (Webster-Stratton, Reid, & Stoolmiller, 2008). Although these programs have 
demonstrated to be useful, they are expensive in terms of duration and involvement of 
various actors (parents, schools, students).  
Need of universal brief interventions 
In recent years numerous short-term psychosocial interventions have been 
developed in educational settings with striking effects on several outcomes such as 
student performance, social integration, and psychological wellbeing (see for a revision 
Yeager & Walton, 2011). Rigorous field experiments have shown that the effects of 
such interventions persist for months or even years later. For example, Blackwell, 
Trzesniewski, and Dweek (2007) got to substantially improve school skills through an 
intervention based on implicit theories of intelligence, which consisted of showing that 
intelligence is modifiable and grows when the individual works with effort in 
challenging tasks. In another intervention, Walton and Cohen (2007, 2011) found that 
leading students to attribute worries about social integration to the difficulty of the 
transition to college rather than to students’ personal or racial identity can strengthen 
ethnic minority students’ sense of social belonging in school and increase motivation 
and performance. Furthermore, students who received the intervention reported 
being happier and healthier in a 3 years posttreatment follow up. 
These psychosocial interventions in school can be brief yet impactful because 
they rely on a rich tradition of research on persuasion and attitude change to 
powerfully convey psychological ideas (Yeager & Walton, 2011). The crucial elements 
that contribute to the success of these interventions are the focus on students’ 
experience in school from the students’ perspective and the use of impactful delivery 
mechanisms (Yeager & Walton, 2011). Some of these mechanisms are the following: a) 
Active role of students, which facilitates deeper message processing; b) Interventions 
are stealthy. For example, interventions are not presented to the students with the 
intent to improve performance or other attributes. Thus, students do not feel they are 
being manipulated so that resistance to intervention is reduced. This approach 

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contributes also to avoid the stigmatization of students. Moreover, the brevity of the 
interventions also helps to be stealthy. c)  Psychosocial interventions have effects over 
long periods due to recursive processes affecting effects that accumulate over time. 
Students usually forget the message and the details of the intervention, but this 
recursive nature triggers other social, psychological and cognitive mechanisms over 
time. 
Implicit theory of personality (ITP) interventions for emotional and behavioral 
problems 
Recently, Yeager and colleagues have extended this type of brief interventions to 
prevent emotional and behavioral problems such as depression and aggressive 
behavior in adolescents.  Their approach is based on implicit theories of personality, 
which refer to the beliefs that people endorse about the malleability of people’s 
socially-relevant traits.  An entity theory of personality involves the belief that personal 
characteristics are fixed and cannot be changed whereas an incremental theory of 
personality involves the belief that people can change. Past research has found that 
when adolescents or adults believe that people’s traits are fixed and unchangeable, 
they are more likely to attribute a negative social event (e.g., peer victimization) to 
their negative traits. They also will tend to infer that the same negative events and 
other adversities will repeat in the future. Therefore, an entity theory of personality 
predicts greater shame and negative emotions in adolescents when they cope with 
stressors such as peer conflicts (Yeager, Trzesniewski, Tirri, Nokelainen, & Dweck, 
2011). By the contrary, if adolescents believe that traits can be changed, then their 
own traits can be improved so that it is unlikely that they become recipients of the 
same negative events in the future. Furthermore, other people’ traits, including those 
of bullies, can also change. Therefore, the beliefs involved in an incremental theory of 
personality can be helpful not only for victims but also for perpetrators of bullying. As 
additional support to this, Rudolph (2010) found that holding an entity theory of peer 
relationships was associated with a greater tendency to evaluate oneself negatively in 
the face of peer disapproval and display depressive and aggressive symptoms when 
victimized. 
Yeager and colleagues have developed brief interventions aimed to change 
entity theories by means of efficient and persuasive intervention tactics that are based 
on the above mentioned mechanisms. For instance, in one of these interventions, a 
six-session high school classroom intervention teaching an incremental theory reduced 
aggressive behavior by 40%, improved depressive symptoms two weeks post-
intervention, and increased school attendance (Yeager, Trzesniewski, & Dweck, 2013). 
Later, they tested the effects of a shorter intervention consisting of only one session. 
This single session touch an incremental theory via computers. In this session 9th grade 
students read a scientific article about the possibility of personality change, then they 
read quotes from older students transmitting the same message. Finally, the students 

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wrote a brief essay where they defended the same idea with the aim of transmitting 
the message to other students in the future. Despite the brevity of this intervention, 
the results obtained by means of a double-blind randomized experiment showed that 
it reduced levels of self-reported clinically relevant depression (Miu & Yeager, 2014) 
and stress levels (Yeager et al., 2014). 
II. AIMS AND HYPOTHESES 
Aim 1: To replicate the effect of an intervention based on Implicit Theories of 
Personality (ITP) on depressive symptoms (Study 1) and aggressive behavior (Study 2) 
in a large sample of Spanish adolescents. Grounded on the previous findings obtained 
in US samples, we will test the efficacy of the ITP intervention by comparing changes in 
depressive symptoms and aggressive behavior from pretreatment to follow up 
between the group receiving the ITP intervention and a control group that will receive 
a control educational condition.  
Hypothesis: Those adolescents receiving the ITP intervention will show fewer 
symptoms of depression and lower frequency of aggressive behavior than the control 
group after the intervention and at six-month and one-year follow-up.  
Aim 2: To test whether the intervention changes biological and cognitive 
variables. From a biopsychosocial perspective, several mechanisms can explain the 
effect of the ITP intervention on psychological problems (depression and aggressive 
behavior). These mechanisms include changes in cognitive vulnerabilities and changes 
in the biological responses to the environmental stressors. If participants develop 
beliefs that personality traits are malleable, this should influence many maladaptive 
cognitive schemas. In fact, a feature of most maladaptive cognitive schemas is their 
absolute and stable nature (e.g., "I am a bad person", "The others will always reject 
me", "People hurt me on purpose", "I cannot put limits to my conduct". The 
intervention could also change biological indicators of stress (e.g., hormonal 
indicators). Therefore, in this project we will evaluate whether the ITP intervention 
affects cognitive vulnerabilities and biological indicators (cortisol, testosterone and 
DHEA in saliva). 
Hypothesis: the association between the intervention and changes in 
psychological problems will be associated with changes in cognitive and hormonal 
variables. Some studies have explored whether the effects of interventions on 
depressive symptoms are mediated by changes in cognitive vulnerabilities with mixed 
results (Mychailyszyn et al., 2012). Thus, this project aims to contribute to clarifying 
mediational cognitive mechanisms. 
Aim 3: To identify whether development and sex moderates the effects of the 
intervention. Regarding the developmental stage at which the preventive intervention 
is more effective, though studies are inconclusive, in general there is some consensus 
that cognitive vulnerabilities tend to consolidate in adolescence. Also in the case of 

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depression prevalence rates increase dramatically during adolescence. This supports 
the tentative hypothesis that the preventive intervention may be more effective if 
implemented early (i.e., before depression rates increase and cognitive vulnerabilities 
are consolidated).  
As girls display higher rates of depression and boys higher rates of some 
modalities of aggressive behavior, sex could moderate the effects of the ITP 
intervention on psychological problems. For instance, we hypothesize that the ITP 
intervention will lead to a higher reduction of depressive symptoms in girls. 
Aim 4: To test whether temperament moderates the effect of the intervention. 
We hypothesize that the intervention will be more effective in adolescents high in 
neuroticism. 
III. METHODS 
This project will use a randomized controlled trial study design with pretest, 
posttest, six-month follow-up, and one-year follow-up. Group 1 (experimental group) 
will receive the ITP intervention and Group 2 (control group) will receive an 
educational intervention. 
Study design and participants 
We will conduct a double-blind randomized controlled trial (RCT) with two 
parallel groups in a large sample of volunteer adolescents (approximately n=900), from 
several high school centers (ages from 12 to 18 years).  The schools will be randomly 
selected from the Basque Country. Participants will be randomly assigned to the 
experimental vs control groups. Group assignation will be done at the individual level 
within each classroom. Participants were randomized in a 1:1 ratio blocked by gender 
to one of two groups (experimental versus control condition). They were assigned to 
their allocated group in class by the researchers.  
Measures  
Depressive symptoms and aggressive behavior will be assessed by means of 
self-reports through the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale (CES-D; 
Radloff, 1977), the revised version of the Peer Experiences Questionnaire (RPEQ; 
Prinstein, Boergers, & Vernberg, 2001), the Cyber Bullying Questionnaire (CBQ; 
Calvete, Orue, Estévez, Villardón, & Padilla, 2010; Gámez-Guadix, Villa-George, & 
Calvete, 2014. 
Measures of cortisol, DHEA and testosterone in saliva: A subset of the 
participants (around 50%) will provide saliva samples to be assayed for 
neuroendocrine levels to measure cortisol, DHEA and testosterone. Saliva samples will 
be collected at baseline (one week before the intervention), post-intervention (one 
week after the intervention) and at the two follow-ups (six-months and one-year 
follow-up). Data collection will occur in school and the time of assessments will remain 

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the same for each individual to minimize the effects of diurnal rhythms and reduce 
error variance. The adolescents will complete an intake survey (e.g., eating, drinking, 
exercise, and medication) that can potentially affect hormonal reactivity. The 
adolescents will then be directed to transfer saliva from their mouths to a tube. The 
sample tubes will be carefully labelled. As soon as the session ends, saliva samples will 
be sent to the assay laboratory.  
Cognitive vulnerabilities: Two important cognitive vulnerabilities will be 
assessed: dysfunctional cognitive schemas and beliefs about implicit theories of 
personality. We will measure cognitive schemas that are relevant for depression (i.e., 
defectiveness, emotional privation) in the study about depression. We will use the 
Spanish version of the Young Schema Questionnaire (YSQ; Young, 2006). In addition, 
we will measure implicit theories of personality through the Implicit Theories of 
Personality questionnaire (Yeager et al., 2014). 
Temperament traits: Temperament will be assessed by the revised version of 
the Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire (EATQ-R; Ellis & Rothbart, 2001) and 
the Big Five Questionnaire for children (BFQ-C; Barbaranelli, Caprara, Rabasca, & 
Pastorelli, 2003) for adolescents at the beginning of the study. 
Parent reports: Parents will be invited to participate by responding measures 
about their children temperament by means of the revised version of the Early 
Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire (EATQ-R; Ellis & Rothbart, 2001) and the Big 
Five Questionnaire for children (BFQ-C; Barbaranelli et al., 2003) for parents and 
depressive symptoms through the CBCL 6/18 (Achenbach, 1991; Achenbach & 
Edelbrock, 1983). These data will be used in analyses in case that the response rate is 
enough. 
 
Preventive Intervention 
The ITP intervention lasts one session (of approximately one hour) and has three 
main parts: (1) scientific information; (2) normative stories from upperclassmen; and 
(3) self-persuasive writing exercise. In the first part, students read a scientific article 
that provides evidence that individuals have the potential to change. Participants read 
about actual neurological and behavioral studies showing that behaviors are controlled 
by “thoughts and feelings in brains,” and that pathways in the brain have the potential 
to be changed under the right circumstances. In the second part, participants read 
several normative quotes purportedly written by upperclassmen that previously read 
the same article and endorsed its conclusions. These quotes are obtained from 
previous interventions and edited by the team. These testimonials are provided to 
bring credibility to the incremental theory. Finally, in the last part, participants will be 
asked to write their own version of such a narrative to share with future students, This 
activity has been shown to facilitate the internalization of the intervention message, 

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building on a long line of research on cognitive dissonance (Walton & Cohen, 2011). 
For a more complete description of the ITP intervention see Yeager et al. (2013). The 
intervention will be adapted to the developmental characteristics of the participants. 
The educational intervention involves scientific information about the human 
brain. It was designed to be parallel to the experimental intervention and, hence, it has 
also three main parts. First, participants are asked to read scientific information about 
the different areas of the brain and their specialties. Second, participants read several 
testimonials written by upperclassmen about their transition to high school and how 
their brains help them to adapt to the new space and all the physical differences of the 
building and the classes. Finally, participants are asked to write a letter to another 
student explaining the main things he or she has learned about the brain and thinks 
are important for adapting to the new physical environment in high school. Hence it 
will control for the possibility that simple optimism about the potential for growth 
might account for our results. This is a conservative control group. An entity theory 
control group would be unethical in a longitudinal field experiment because it could 
teach the belief that personality cannot be changed, which has been associated to 
negative consequences.  
Procedure 
Parental informed consent forms will be sent to parents and adolescents. Those 
who accept to participate in the study will complete report measures at four waves: (1) 
one-week before intervention; (2) one-week after intervention; (3) six-months follow-
up; and (3) one-year follow-up. Saliva samples will be collected at the same time 
points. Parents’ participants will complete report measures at three waves: (1) one-
week before intervention; (2) six-months follow-up; and (3) one-year follow-up. 
Intervention will be applied one week after the first survey. All the measures will be 
anonymous and participants will be asked to provide certain data (her/his birth date, 
first initial of mother’s name, and first initial of father’s name) to match their 
questionnaires, saliva samples and intervention tasks over time. Both interventions 
and assessment measures will be administered by research assistants during normal 
class time and last around 50 minutes.  
Ethical considerations 
This study aims to develop and implement interventions that will be beneficial 
for the participating adolescents and other people in the future, by helping to increase 
their psychological wellbeing. Through randomization, the principle of justice will be 
respected, allowing all participants to have similar opportunities to receive the 
intervention. Gender will be considered and similar number of male and female 
participants will be included in the studies.  
The risks are minimal and limited to answering psychological tests on stressors, 
psychological symptoms and cognitive styles. Previous experience with the same 

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questionnaires indicates that the risk is minimal. Adolescents can also decide to end 
their participation at any moment. Researchers collecting data will be trained to attend 
to any difficulty that could emerge while participants are responding to 
questionnaires. The researchers will give an alternative task (e.g., educational 
readings) to those participants who decide to end their participation. 
Informed consent forms will be sent to parents or legal guardians to complete. 
Adolescents will also receive written information. The active consent of parents or 
legal guardians and of adolescents will be necessary for participation in the project. 
We will incentive adolescents for bringing parent forms, even when decision is 
negative. 
Parents will be invited to complete measures of children’temperament and send 
their completed questionnaires in a stamped envelope that will be provided without 
any identifying information. Adolescents will complete the measures in the classroom. 
Saliva samples and their analysis will be processed according to existing regulations in 
a professional lab. 
After completing measures, adolescents will be provided with information on 
services for adolescents (e.g., phone number of attention to adolescents). From an 
ethical perspective, the most important care aspect is the protection of information. 
We will follow the Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament, Ley Orgánica 15/99 
de 13 de diciembre de Protección de datos de Carácter Personal, and of the Council of 
24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of 
personal data and the free movement of such data. No identification data, such as 
names or surnames, will be used; instead, we will use a numeric code to match 
measures across times and sources (parents, and adolescents). Thus, each adolescent, 
and only he/she, will know his/her code. We will also follow the procedure for data 
protection that the University of Deusto has registered in the National Data Protection 
Agency. The project has been approved by the Ethics in Research committee of 
University of Deusto. 
IV. STATISTICAL ANALYSES PLAN 
Descriptive statistics of sociodemographic and study variables will be provided 
and several statistical strategies will be used to test the hypotheses. These will include 
mixed analyses of variance (ANOVA), multilevel analyses, regression analyses, among 
others.  We will use IBM SPSS, MPLUS, LISREL, and HLM software for analyses. 
 
 
 
 
 

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