title: The influence of stress mindset on health and performance: Advancing theory, measurement, and intervention
Creators: name: Keech, Jacob J.
Publisher: name: Griffith University
Year: 2019
Subjects: subject: Stress
subject: Coping
subject: Mindset
subject: Implicit theories
subject: Measurement
subject: Dual-process theories
subject: Randomised controlled trial

description: Despite the impact of stress on both physical and psychological health, very few people seek professional support in managing their stress. Potential targets for non-clinical interventions to aid in stress management are therefore a timely area to explore. Emerging research has found that holding the belief that stress can have enhancing consequences–stress mindset–can have a positive effect on physical and psychological wellbeing, coping behaviours, affective outcomes, and performance in response to laboratory stressor tasks and ecological stress over short periods of time. Stress mindset has also been found to be malleable through brief multimedia interventions and may therefore be a suitable target for non-clinical interventions to aid in stress management. Mindsets are conceptualised as an individual’s beliefs about whether fundamental attributes are fixed or malleable; however, the existing measure of stress mindset diverges from this conceptualisation, operationalising stress mindset as strictly enhancing or strictly debilitating. There is also a lack of data explaining the mechanisms through which stress mindsets influence these stress-related outcomes. Further, interventions have only been evaluated in the context of responses to laboratory stressors and ecological stressors over a few days. The program of research presented in this thesis has three overarching aims. The first aim is to develop and evaluate a model that explains the mechanisms through which stress mindset influences stress-related outcomes and to evaluate whether the structure of the proposed model holds in a different context and sample. The second aim is to advance measurement of stress mindset through the development and validation of a measure of stress mindset that is theoretically-consistent. The final aim is to develop and evaluate the effect of a novel intervention on individuals’ stress mindset, and on stress-related outcomes while individuals experience ecological stress over a two-week period. As a thesis by publication, four papers report the four studies that comprise this program of research. Study 1 aimed to validate the stress control mindset measure (SCMM) across samples from Australia (n = 218) and the United Kingdom (n = 214). Confirmatory factor analyses indicated a consistent four-factor structure and measurement invariance across samples. Construct validity regarding conceptually-related measures and reliability was also supported across both samples. Stepwise regression analyses also indicated that the SCMM exhibited incremental validity, accounting for significantly more variance in health and wellbeing outcomes than the stress mindset measure. The SCMM is therefore a valid and reliable measure with good psychometric properties that addresses the divergence in measurement and theory of stress mindset. To develop an understanding of the mechanisms through which stress mindset may influence health and performance outcomes, Study 2 developed and tested a novel stress beliefs model. Undergraduate students (n = 218) completed study measures in a research laboratory. Findings indicate that behaviours with the goal of proactively meeting demands under stress and perceived somatic symptoms are important mediators of the effect of stress mindset on health- and performance-related outcomes. Study 3 aimed to test the stress beliefs model in a sample of police officers, replicating and extending upon Study 1 and using a Bayesian analytic technique to provide updated estimates of model parameters. Police officers (n = 134) completed study measures in an online survey. Findings supported model predictions, with behaviours aimed at proactively meeting demands and perceived somatic symptoms mediating the effects of stress mindsets on health-related outcomes. The findings from these studies provide formative data which can inform the development of future interventions aiming to encourage more adaptive responses to stress. Study 4 aimed to develop and test of a novel imagery intervention to change stress mindset. The study adopted a pre-registered randomized placebo-controlled trial design. University students (n = 150) attended a research laboratory twice over two weeks, receiving the intervention or placebo in Session 1, and completing measures in both sessions. Students’ academic performance data was collected from university records. Large-sized differences in stress mindset were observed in intervention group participants immediately following the intervention and at the two-week follow-up relative to controls. However, there were no effects of the intervention for the pre-registered analyses. Further theory guided analyses robust effects of the intervention on perceived distress, positive and negative affect, proactive behavior, and academic performance at the follow-up in individuals with high baseline perceived stress. Overall, the findings of this research program make an important contribution to our knowledge of stress mindset and provide important theoretical and practical implications. The research provides advances in measurement with the new measure of stress mindset, the SCMM, addressing a prior divergence in theory and measurement and accounting for more variance in health and wellbeing outcomes than the existing measure. The development and testing of the stress beliefs model in students and police officers provides foundational theory for understanding how stress mindsets influence health and performance, identifying that proactive coping behaviour under stress and perceptions of somatic symptoms are mediators in this process. The final study developed and tested a novel mental imagery intervention, and findings indicate that the intervention is a promising approach for changing individuals’ stress mindset and that changing stress mindset can have beneficial effects on coping with ecological stressors.