By Dr. Liji Thomas, MDApr 22 2024Reviewed by Benedette Cuffari, M.Sc. A recent study published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health examines whether and how the need to achieve certain goals increases the risk of depression in adolescents.
Many schools offer preventive mental interventions such as mindfulness, cognitive behavioral therapy , or psychoeducation that are easily accessible to all students. However, these methods have often failed to demonstrate significant efficacy in relieving depressive symptoms. Achievement goals can be further classified as mastery and performance goals. Mastery goals include those that students define as their success at developing understanding or skills, while performance skills reflect success defined by outperforming peers.
Achievement goals and depression Some psychological models suggest that people oriented towards achievement are more likely to become depressed, as they are often more focused on performance rather than mastery goals. Moreover, the inability to compete successfully with peers can lead to reduced self-worth due to feelings of inadequacy.
Only one study has explored how achievement goals affect depressive symptoms. To this end, a greater risk of depression was observed among 13-14- and 18-19-year-old adolescents with performance rather than mastery goals. Depression and academic goals Depressive symptom severity increased over time for both cohorts. In the kindergarten cohort, with each one-point increase in mastery-approach goals, there was a 33% reduced risk in depressive symptom severity scores, whereas a 30% reduction was observed in the baby cohort. With each corresponding increase in mastery-avoidance goals, a 35% and 44% increase in depressive symptom severity scores were observed within the kindergarten and baby cohorts, respectively.
Health Health Latest News, Health Health Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: NewsMedical - 🏆 19. / 71 Read more »
Source: NewsMedical - 🏆 19. / 71 Read more »