Students who 'strive' to rise above significant stressors to achieve academic success are considered 'resilient'. However, youths' resilience in one domain (i.e. academic) can come at a cost in other domains including physical and mental health morbidities that are under-identified and under-treated. Previous research suggests that individuals from populations experiencing documented health disparities who exhibit a "striving persistent behavioral style" in the face of stress evince later health morbidities. Ironically, the same self-regulatory skills that promote academic achievement amid chronic stress can also result in physiological dysregulation that harms health and mental health. Self-regulatory processes that involve emotion suppression, experiential avoidance, and unmodulated perseverance can culminate in allostatic load which fuels health disparities and internalizing symptoms of depression and anxiety. The proposed mechanistic trial will utilize mindfulness training to permit examination of questions about the causal role of emotion regulation strategies linked to the striving persistent behavioral style in driving mental health and health morbidities among individuals from populations experiencing documented health disparities. The proposed Project STRIVE (STudents RIsing aboVE) will identify students who are academically resilient in the face of stress and will offer a tailored mindfulness intervention targeting self-regulation processes as a putative mechanism to interrupt the links between the striving persistent behavioral style and negative health outcomes. Investigators propose a multisite randomized trial randomizing 504 high achieving Black, Latinx, or Asian America/Pacific Islander students in 18 schools to receive a mindfulness intervention or an attention control condition focused on study skills. The study will: (1) test the effects of the STRIVE intervention on putative self-regulation mechanisms (emotion suppression, experiential avoidance, and unmodulated perseverance) among identified students, (2) test the effects of the STRIVE intervention on health and mental health outcomes at 12-month post-treatment, including biomarkers of allostatic load (cortisol, blood pressure, body-mass-index, waist/hip/neck circumference), health complaints, and internalizing symptoms, and (3) examine the mechanistic model linking striving persistent behavioral style and health outcomes within the STRIVE trial.
Age range
13 Years
Sex
ALL
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Change in Internalizing Symptoms over time
Timeframe: Collected at baseline, Mid-Assessment (Week 6), Post-Assessment (Week 13), and 12 month follow up
Change in Physical Health Complaints over time on the PROMIS scale
Timeframe: Collected at baseline, Mid-Assessment (Week 6), Post-Assessment (Week 13), and 12 month follow up
Change in Physical Health Complaints over time on the CSSI-8
Timeframe: Collected at baseline, Mid-Assessment (Week 6), Post-Assessment (Week 13), and 12 month follow up
Change in Hair Cortisol over time
Timeframe: Collected at baseline, post-assessment (13 weeks), and 12 month follow up
Change in Hair Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) over time
Timeframe: Collected at baseline, post-assessment (13 weeks), and 12 month follow up
Change in Saliva Inflammatory Marker over time
Timeframe: Collected at baseline, Post-Assessment (13-weeks), and 12 month follow up
Change in Hip-to-waist ratio
Timeframe: Collected at baseline, post-assessment (13 weeks), and 12 month follow up
Change in Resting Blood pressure (systolic and diastolic) mmHg (millimeters of mercury)
Timeframe: Collected at baseline, post-assessment (13 weeks), and 12 month follow up
Change in Resting Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia bpm (beats per minute)
Timeframe: Collected at baseline, post-assessment (13 weeks), and 12 month follow up
Change in Body Mass Index (BMI) Percentile
Timeframe: Collected at baseline, post-assessment (13 weeks), and 12 month follow up
Change in Allostatic Load over time
Timeframe: Collected at baseline, Post-Assessment (13-weeks), and 12 month follow up