Adolescent Acts of Kindness Intervention
Condition: Inflammation; Mental Health Wellness 1
MeSH terms: Inflammation
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Adolescents will complete a 4-week intervention, during which they will either complete a
      kind act for others, complete a kind act for themselves, or report their daily activities
      three days per week. Psychological and physiological measures will be indexed before and
      after the intervention.
    

Detailed description: 
      Stress and early adversity have been found to influence immune function via enhanced
      expression of the conserved transcriptional response to adversity (CTRA) genetic profile.
      Expression of this genetic profile was reduced in adults who completed a prosocial behavior
      intervention. This project aims to implement this intervention in adolescents. 90 high school
      students will be recruited and assigned to one of three groups (30/group). Participants will
      either conduct 3 acts of kindness for themselves, conduct 3 acts of kindness for others, or
      report about their day 3 times per week for 4 weeks. During this intervention, they will
      receive text messages 3 days per week instructing them to complete their respective act.
      Participants will provide a brief description of this act that evening, as well as complete
      brief surveys at the end of the week for each week of the intervention. Participants will
      come into the lab twice, once before and once after the 4-week intervention. During these lab
      sessions participants will complete survey measures, have their heart rate measured, and have
      a blood draw conducted by a trained phlebotomist. Participants' parents will also complete a
      brief survey to provide demographic information and an idea of what prosocial behaviors
      participants witnessed in their home. The investigators will use these data to assess the
      effects of prosocial behavior on health and the psychological mechanisms underlying these
      effects. At the second study visit, participants will be given the opportunity to donate part
      of their study payment to a charity to measure prosociality. Any donations will be vetted
      with the psychology department's accounting group prior to making any donations in the
      university's name. Scott Monatlik, Director, Tax and Information Practices, at
      smonatlik@finance.ucla.edu or (310) 794-6724 will be contacted and information regarding the
      appropriate steps to take to ensure that the donation is made to an acceptable charity prior
      to any donations. Actual helping behavior (donations) is measured to provide an ecologically
      valid experimental evaluation of prosociality rather than traditional metrics of
      computerized, fictional giving. Conceptual frameworks from developmental and health
      psychology guide the hypothesis that prosocial behavior will influence adolescents.
    

Intervention name(s): Self-Focused Acts of Kindness Intervention; Other-Focused Acts of Kindness Intervention; Daily Reports
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Participants engage in positive behaviors by completing acts of kindness for themselves three times per week. These acts should require effort and be outside of an individual's normal routine.; Participants engage in positive behaviors by completing acts of kindness for others three times per week. These acts should require effort and be outside of an individual's normal routine.; Participants will report their daily activities three times per week. Aside from reporting at the end of the day, no changes should be made to the individual's normal routine.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Intervention model description: 90 participants will randomly be assigned to one of three interventions. Participants will complete a 4-week intervention. All outcomes will be measured before and after the intervention, and some psychological measures will be collected weekly throughout the intervention.
Masking: Single (Participant)
Primary purpose: Basic Science
Keywords: adolescence; immune function; gene expression; psychological well-being; social connection; kindness