Using Conversational AI to Teach Growth Mindset Skills to Youths in India

January 25, 2026 updated by: John Weisz, Harvard University
This study aims to test whether a brief digital intervention using conversational AI can improve mental health outcomes among school-aged youth (grades 6-8) in India, where most young people with mental health issues do not receive treatment. The intervention teaches "growth mindset", the belief that skills and abilities can improve with effort, via a 45-minute interactive conversation with an AI chatbot (spread across two class periods). A randomized controlled trial with approximately 430 students at a private, English-medium school in Bangalore will evaluate whether interacting with the chatbot can reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression while enhancing growth mindset beliefs. Half the students will receive the full intervention at baseline, while the other half (control group) will complete a usual school assignment; after 7 weeks, the control group will receive a shortened (15-minute) version of the growth mindset intervention. Participants will complete 10-minute surveys at baseline, 3 weeks, and 7 weeks, after which all students will receive a printed booklet with all the information from the chatbot. This study represents one of the first randomized controlled trials evaluating conversational AI as a brief digital intervention for youth mental health.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Globally, 300 million youths have a diagnosable mental disorder and more reside in India than any other country. Yet, in India, where this study is based, most youths affected by mental health issues do not receive treatment. Symptoms are especially prevalent during high school, when many students show signs of depression and anxiety. Given myriad challenges in accessing mental healthcare, some have turned to conversational AIs such as ChatGPT and Claude for personalized support. However, there are few rigorous tests of whether such tools can improve mental health.

This study aims to bridge this gap by combining conversational AI with evidence-based intervention for youth mental health-specifically, a growth mindset intervention, which promotes the belief that abilities are not innate but can be improved with effort. It is well known that growth mindset interventions can improve academic performance. In addition, researchers have shown that brief, computer-guided growth mindset training can reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression that sustain 3-9 months post-intervention, and not only in the United States. However, until now, these interventions have been delivered via static, standardized websites that few people use.

The intervention considered is a 45-minute interactive lesson on growth mindset, embedded within a conversational AI. Similar to prior interventions, the content includes modules on understanding growth mindset, its basis in neuroplasticity, and roleplaying scenarios. Each module includes interactive discussions with the AI (e.g., "in your words, what is a growth mindset?", "in the above scenario, how could a growth mindset apply?")

The specific aim of the study is to test whether a brief, AI-enabled growth mindset intervention offers measurable benefits for school-aged youth in India. A randomized controlled trial with about 430 students (grades 6-8) will measure whether the AI-enabled training leads to changes in growth mindset beliefs and skills as well as symptoms of anxiety and depression, relative to a control group that receives a shortened intervention after 7 weeks. Brief, 10-minute questionnaires will be administered to all participants at baseline, 3 weeks, and 7 weeks. At the conclusion of the trial, all students will receive a printed booklet with content from the full intervention. The study will take place in an English-medium private school in Bangalore, India, which serves a diversity of students.

The growth mindset intervention may also benefit academic performance, and the school partner, at its discretion, may be able to integrate it into part of their standard curriculum following the completion of the study. However, the specific research question is whether the chatbot interaction yields measurable improvements in youth mental health. Given the preponderance of AI chatbots aiming to address various aspects of mental health, such measurement is as important as it is rare. This study will contribute to the growing evidence base on how technology can inform and support youth mental health.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

383

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • India
    • Karnataka
      • Bangalore, Karnataka, India
        • Partner school

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Youth in grades 6-8 at our partner school
  • Youth assents to participate and a parent/guardian provides passive consent (does not opt-out of participation)

Exclusion Criteria:

  • N/A

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Growth mindset training
Receives growth mindset training via 45-minute interaction with conversational AI
Behavioral: Growth mindset training using conversational AI
Participants will interact with an AI chatbot for approximately 45 minutes. The tutorial has a structured script and pauses at section boundaries to allow for brief interactions. It also contains culturally-grounded comics and illustrations with role-playing scenarios to engage with students.
No Intervention: Usual classroom activities
Performs usual classroom activities during the intervention period; receives delayed and shortened intervention at the conclusion of the study

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in Behavior and Feelings Survey - Internalizing Subscale (full sample)
Time Frame: Baseline, 3 weeks, 7 weeks
Trajectories of self-reported symptoms of anxiety and depression from the 6-item (each item rated on a 0-4 scale, with higher ratings indicating more symptoms) Internalizing Subscale of the Behavior and Feelings Survey. Total scores range from 0 to 24, with higher scores indicating more symptoms (BFS; Weisz et al., 2020).
Baseline, 3 weeks, 7 weeks
Student Perceived Program Acceptability and Helpfulness
Time Frame: Immediately post-intervention
Assessed via the Program Feedback Scale (Schleider et al., 2019). This scale consists of 7 items rated on a 1 to 5 scale, with higher scores indicating greater acceptability and helpfulness.
Immediately post-intervention

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in Behavior and Feelings Survey - Internalizing Subscale (elevated subsample)
Time Frame: Baseline, 3 weeks, 7 weeks
Trajectories of self-reported symptoms of anxiety and depression from the 6-item (each item rated on a 0-4 scale, with higher ratings indicating more symptoms) Internalizing Subscale of the Behavior and Feelings Survey. Total scores range from 0 to 24, with higher scores indicating more symptoms (BFS; Weisz et al., 2020).
Baseline, 3 weeks, 7 weeks
Change in Growth Mindset Beliefs (full sample and elevated subsample)
Time Frame: Baseline, 3 weeks, 7 weeks
Assessed via the Growth Mindset Scale (Sigmundsson & Haga, 2024), adapted to a lower reading level. This scale consists of 8 items, rated on a scale from 1 (not like me at all) to 5 (very much like me).
Baseline, 3 weeks, 7 weeks
Growth mindset reflections (intervention group)
Time Frame: 3 weeks, 7 weeks

Assessed with brief questions to check recall and use of growth mindset as well as intent to apply it in the future:

  • In one sentence, what is the main idea of growth mindset?
  • Have you used growth mindset for anything at school or home in the past few weeks? [Yes, Not yet, I'm not sure]
  • [If they answer "Yes"] Please share what happened. What did you do or think?
  • How might you use growth mindset in the next month? Be sure to explain: (i) WHAT you want to get better at. This could be a school subject, a skill, or any personal goal, (ii) HOW you will improve. This could include practicing, asking for help, or any of the tips above!
3 weeks, 7 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Harvard University

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: John R Weisz, Ph.D., Harvard University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

November 3, 2025

Primary Completion (Actual)

January 9, 2026

Study Completion (Actual)

January 9, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

December 5, 2025

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 18, 2025

First Posted (Actual)

January 5, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

January 27, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 25, 2026

Last Verified

January 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • IRB25-0827

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

IPD Plan Description

To respect concerns shared by our school partner regarding privacy of student data, individual participant data will not be shared with outside researchers.

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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