Mindset and perseverance of adolescents with intellectual disabilities: Associations with empowerment, mental health problems, and self-esteem.
Teens with ID who believe they can change their emotions and behavior report fewer mental-health problems.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Verberg et al. (2019) asked teens with mild intellectual disability about their mindset.
They used paper surveys. Kids answered how much they agreed with statements like "You can change how you act if you try."
The team also measured perseverance, empowerment, self-esteem, and mental-health symptoms.
What they found
Teens who believed they could grow their behavior and emotions had fewer mental-health problems.
Perseverance helped too. The link was strongest for behavior and emotions, not for intelligence.
How this fits with other research
Bailey et al. (2010) already showed that ID teens with chronic diseases carry more emotional and behavioral problems. Fenneke’s work adds a new lever: mindset, not just medicine.
Hall et al. (2016) interviewed resilient ID teens. Those kids named "supportive people" and "chances to succeed" as key helpers. Fenneke’s numbers echo the same theme—believing change is possible matters.
Richardson et al. (2008) tracked challenging behavior for eleven years and saw little change. That sounds gloomy, yet Fenneke’s cross-section shows some teens already think they can grow. The difference is lens: V et al. looked at long-term stability; Fenneke looked at inside beliefs you can shift right now.
Why it matters
You can’t rewrite a diagnosis, but you can coach mindset. Praise effort after a calm-down routine. Add self-monitoring sheets that show daily progress. When a teen says "I always blow up," counter with "Your brain is a muscle—let’s train it." Five-minute mindset talks may cut future counseling referrals.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Mindset refers to the implicit assumptions about the malleability of attributes such as intelligence, behavior, and personality. Previous research has shown that people endorsing a growth mindset show better academic and mental health outcomes than those with a fixed mindset. However, little is known about the mindset of youth with intellectual disabilities (ID) and its association with mental health. METHODS: Adolescents with (n = 247) and without (n = 96) mild to borderline ID completed questionnaires about mindset and perseverance, empowerment, mental health problems, and self-esteem. RESULTS: Adolescents with ID endorse a more fixed mindset of emotion and behavior than adolescents without ID. No significant differences were found for mindset of intelligence and perseverance. In addition, within the group of youth with ID some differences in mindset and perseverance were found based on level of intellectual disability, gender, and comorbidities, but not for age. Finally, a growth mindset of emotion and behavior and perseverance, but not mindset of intelligence, were negatively related to mental health problems in youth with ID. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS: Overall, findings indicate that teaching youth with ID a growth mindset of emotion and behavior and perseverance may be a potentially successful endeavour to improve mental health in adolescents with ID.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2019 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2019.103426