Web-based Single-session Intervention of Mindset for Improving Pre-practicum Anxiety and Coping

Efficacy of an Integrated Growth Mindset Intervention on Reducing Anxiety for Social Work and/or Counselling Practicum Trainees: Study Protocol for a Two-Arm Randomised Controlled Trial

Practicum is an essential educational component of professional training, however, the process can be challenging and sometimes frustrating, with obstacles such as the rigorous training process and mental distress. Being adequately prepared to confront the challenges and difficulties in practicum is crucial for the learning outcomes and psychological well-being of social work and/or counselling trainees. At the same time, mindset is found to be a modifiable factor in intervention, which is essential in clinical psychology, therapy, prevention, and early intervention. Instilling growth mindsets regarding intelligence, emotion, and failure-is-enhancing mindsets, respectively, is worthwhile in easing anxiety and stress coping. However, the existing intervention approaches lack of mindset integration, low intensity, distinctions of employees and interns, more objective and reliable outcome indictors and well-designed randomised controlled trials.

Using a two-arm randomised controlled trial, the proposed study will examine the efficacy of a Web-based Single-session Intervention of Mindset on Intelligence, Failure, and Emotion (We-SMILE) on reducing anxiety related to practicum and improving mental health and practicum-related outcomes.

A total of 117 students will be recruited from the social work and/or counselling programmes, and randomly assigned to existing pre-practicum training (Training As Usual, TAU) or that plus the We-SMILE. The intervention is 45 minutes in length. Participants will be assessed at three timepoints: baseline (T1), two weeks post-intervention (T2), and eight weeks post-intervention (T3). Patient and public involvement is adopted in the intervention design and implementation strategies. It is expected that the We-SMILE group will present lower anxiety related to practicum and more positive secondary outcomes (depression, anxiety, stress, psychological well-being, learning and performance orientation, academic self-efficacy, and confidence) compared to the TAU group. The intention-to-treat principle and linear-regression-based maximum likelihood multi-level models will be used for data analysis.

The study will not only provide evidence on integrated mindset intervention for trainees' mental health and learning outcomes, but also benefit social work and/or counselling supervisors and programmes as an accessible module.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Anxiety
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Web-based Single-session Intervention of Mindset on Intelligence, Failure, and Emotion (We-SMILE)

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 117
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Shimin Zhu, PhD; Phone Number: +852 2766 5787; Email: jasmine.zhu@polyu.edu.hk

Study Locations

• Hong Kong
  • Hong Kong, Hong Kong
    • Recruiting
    • The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
    • Contact: Shimin Zhu, PhD; Phone Number: +852 2766 5787; Email: jasmine.zhu@polyu.edu.hk

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Pre-practicum students in social work and/or counselling programmes are eligible.

• Inclusion Criteria: students who

  1. are about to start the practicum soon;
  2. can read and write Chinese;
  3. consent to participate.

• Exclusion Criteria: students who

  1. do not consent to participate;
  2. cannot concentrate for at least 45 minutes to complete the intervention and questionnaires;
  3. have a disability or serious physical or mental illness resulting in poor condition;
  4. do not participate in the practicum.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Web-based Single-session Intervention of Mindset on Intelligence, Failure, and Emotion (We-SMILE); We-SMILE introduces growth mindsets about intelligence, failure, and negative emotions to pre-practicum trainees, consisting of five components: (a) an introduction to a proactive mindset, including neuroplasticity, the malleability of intelligence and emotion, and the importance of failure and feedback in the learning process; (b) stories and testimonials during practicum which emphasise the belief in change; (c) short videos about allegories of developing intelligence, emotion, and failure mindsets; (d) common questions and misconceptions about growth mindsets; and (e) self-persuasive writing exercises in which participants write down their thoughts and suggestions for others about growth mindsets.	Behavioral: Web-based Single-session Intervention of Mindset on Intelligence, Failure, and Emotion (We-SMILE); This study will be a two-arm randomised controlled trial to examine the efficacy of the We-SMILE for pre-practicum social work and/or counselling students by comparing to the We-SMILE intervention group and the no-intervention training-as-usual group.
No Intervention: Training as usual group; The training-as-usual group will continue the normal training and will be provided with repeated assessments at the same timeframe as the intervention group. Participants in training-as-usual group will receive the intervention course after finishing the eight-week follow-up questionnaire.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Anxiety related to practicum	Anxiety related to practicum will be measured by four items, including "level of anxiety about starting the practicum", "how much your anxiety will interfere with their learning", "how prepared you are for the practicum" and "how excited you are to participate in the practicum". Each statement will be rated on a 10-point Likert scale, ranging from 1=completely not anxious, very small, completely unprepared, and completely unexcited to 10=extremely anxious, very great, perfectly prepared, and extremely excited.	Baseline
Anxiety related to practicum	Anxiety related to practicum will be measured by four items, including "level of anxiety about starting the practicum", "how much your anxiety will interfere with their learning", "how prepared you are for the practicum" and "how excited you are to participate in the practicum". Each statement will be rated on a 10-point Likert scale, ranging from 1=completely not anxious, very small, completely unprepared, and completely unexcited to 10=extremely anxious, very great, perfectly prepared, and extremely excited.	Two-week post-intervention
Anxiety related to practicum	Anxiety related to practicum will be measured by four items, including "level of anxiety about starting the practicum", "how much your anxiety will interfere with their learning", "how prepared you are for the practicum" and "how excited you are to participate in the practicum". Each statement will be rated on a 10-point Likert scale, ranging from 1=completely not anxious, very small, completely unprepared, and completely unexcited to 10=extremely anxious, very great, perfectly prepared, and extremely excited.	Eight-week post-intervention

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Depression, anxiety and stress	Depression, anxiety, and stress will be assessed by the simplified 12-item Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-12). The items of DASS-12 were shortlisted from the DASS-21 such as "I found it hard to wind down.". Each item will be rated from 0=never to 4=almost always according to the participant's status over the past week.	Baseline
Depression, anxiety and stress	Depression, anxiety, and stress will be assessed by the simplified 12-item Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-12). The items of DASS-12 were shortlisted from the DASS-21 such as "I found it hard to wind down.". Each item will be rated from 0=never to 4=almost always according to the participant's status over the past week.	Two-week post-intervention
Depression, anxiety and stress	Depression, anxiety, and stress will be assessed by the simplified 12-item Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-12). The items of DASS-12 were shortlisted from the DASS-21 such as "I found it hard to wind down.". Each item will be rated from 0=never to 4=almost always according to the participant's status over the past week.	Eight-week post-intervention
Psychological well-being	Psychological well-being will be measured using the seven-item Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (SWEMWBS). One example item is "I've been feeling optimistic about the future.". Each item is rated from 1 (None of the time) to 5 (All of the time).	Baseline
Psychological well-being	Psychological well-being will be measured using the seven-item Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (SWEMWBS). One example item is "I've been feeling optimistic about the future.". Each item is rated from 1 (None of the time) to 5 (All of the time).	Two-week post-intervention
Psychological well-being	Psychological well-being will be measured using the seven-item Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (SWEMWBS). One example item is "I've been feeling optimistic about the future.". Each item is rated from 1 (None of the time) to 5 (All of the time).	Eight-week post-intervention
Learning and performance orientation	Learning and performance orientation will be assessed by eleven adapted items, with five items measuring the learning orientation (e.g., "I like to learn new knowledge in practicums.") and six items measuring performance orientation (e.g., "I like to seek rewards in short term for my efforts."). Each item will be rated by a five-point Likert scale from 1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree.	Baseline
Learning and performance orientation	Learning and performance orientation will be assessed by eleven adapted items, with five items measuring the learning orientation (e.g., "I like to learn new knowledge in practicums.") and six items measuring performance orientation (e.g., "I like to seek rewards in short term for my efforts."). Each item will be rated by a five-point Likert scale from 1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree.	Two-week post-intervention
Learning and performance orientation	Learning and performance orientation will be assessed by eleven adapted items, with five items measuring the learning orientation (e.g., "I like to learn new knowledge in practicums.") and six items measuring performance orientation (e.g., "I like to seek rewards in short term for my efforts."). Each item will be rated by a five-point Likert scale from 1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree.	Eight-week post-intervention
Academic self-efficacy	Academic self-efficacy will be measured by five adapted items. Example items are "I believe that as long as I study diligently, I will be able to master practical skills." and "As long as I am diligent, I can master all of the skills learned during the internship.". The items will be scored from 1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree.	Baseline
Academic self-efficacy	Academic self-efficacy will be measured by five adapted items. Example items are "I believe that as long as I study diligently, I will be able to master practical skills." and "As long as I am diligent, I can master all of the skills learned during the internship.". The items will be scored from 1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree.	Two-week post-intervention
Academic self-efficacy	Academic self-efficacy will be measured by five adapted items. Example items are "I believe that as long as I study diligently, I will be able to master practical skills." and "As long as I am diligent, I can master all of the skills learned during the internship.". The items will be scored from 1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree.	Eight-week post-intervention
Confidence related to practicum	Confidence related to practicum will be assessed by a six-item self-developed scale. Items generated from interviews with social work students, such as "I am confident that I can listen to comments from supervisors/colleagues/service users with an open mind." and "I am confident that I can manage my time well and cope with my practicum work and schoolwork at the same time.". Each item needs to be rated from 1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree.	Baseline
Confidence related to practicum	Confidence related to practicum will be assessed by a six-item self-developed scale. Items generated from interviews with social work students, such as "I am confident that I can listen to comments from supervisors/colleagues/service users with an open mind." and "I am confident that I can manage my time well and cope with my practicum work and schoolwork at the same time.". Each item needs to be rated from 1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree.	Two-week post-intervention
Confidence related to practicum	Confidence related to practicum will be assessed by a six-item self-developed scale. Items generated from interviews with social work students, such as "I am confident that I can listen to comments from supervisors/colleagues/service users with an open mind." and "I am confident that I can manage my time well and cope with my practicum work and schoolwork at the same time.". Each item needs to be rated from 1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree.	Eight-week post-intervention

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Shimin Zhu, PhD, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): May 26, 2024
• Primary Completion (Estimated): April 30, 2025
• Study Completion (Estimated): July 1, 2025

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 15, 2024
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 15, 2024
• First Posted (Actual): July 19, 2024

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): July 19, 2024
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 15, 2024
• Last Verified: July 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: anxiety; growth mindset; implicit theory; social work students; counselling students; practicum
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Anxiety Disorders
• Other Study ID Numbers: HSEARS20240512001

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No