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University of Illinois study highlights the potential of a simple intervention to foster emotional resilience in adolescent girls.

The portrayal of teenage girls in popular media often focuses on the tumultuous experiences associated with adolescence—screaming matches with parents, sneaking out late at night, and emotional turmoil over romantic relationships. While these depictions reflect some aspects of adolescent life, they don’t tell the full story of the cognitive growth and emotional challenges that girls face during these formative years. New research, however, suggests that empowering teenage girls with psychoeducational tools can significantly improve their emotional responses to stress.

Karen Rudolph, a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and researcher at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, has led a study exploring how a single-session psychoeducational intervention can help teenage girls manage their emotions more effectively. Published in the Child Development journal, the study challenges the common assumption that teenage girls are simply “too emotional” and offers an innovative approach to fostering emotional resilience.

Rudolph’s research examines the concept of “emotion mindsets”—whether individuals believe emotions are fixed or can be changed over time. In the same way that a growth mindset can help students see intelligence as a skill to be developed, the researchers hypothesized that a growth mindset could help girls view their emotional responses as changeable and manageable, rather than fixed and uncontrollable.

“We wanted to understand the role of emotion mindsets during the teenage years, when kids are often thought to be highly emotional,” Rudolph said. “Our goal was to cultivate a growth emotion mindset in girls, helping them understand that negative emotions are normal but that practicing emotional regulation strategies can improve their emotional well-being.”

To test this hypothesis, Rudolph and her team developed the E-MIND intervention—a self-administered, psychoeducational lesson designed to instill a growth mindset about emotions. The lesson, which was presented to teenage girls, educated them about the brain’s neuroplasticity, the ability of the brain to evolve and adapt throughout life. The girls were also taught that practicing emotion regulation strategies, such as reframing situations or seeking social support, could improve their emotional resilience.

The study involved two groups of adolescent girls: one received the E-MIND intervention, while the other was taught a general lesson about brain functions. Both groups participated in a stressful task—an oral presentation—and then completed surveys to assess their emotional responses. The researchers also conducted follow-up surveys two and four months later to measure the long-term effects of the intervention.

The results were promising. Girls in the E-MIND group reported greater use of emotion regulation strategies, such as reframing stressful situations or seeking help from others, compared to the control group. They also experienced fewer stress-related reactions like rumination, emotional freezing, or feeling overwhelmed. Most notably, these improvements were most pronounced in girls who initially had a more fixed mindset about their emotions.

“After the intervention, the E-MIND group was more likely to report that they were actively managing negative emotions,” Rudolph explained. “They were less likely to feel stuck or overwhelmed by stressful situations.”

However, the study also highlighted some areas where the intervention’s impact was less pronounced. For example, there was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of how they experienced negative emotions during the oral presentation itself. Additionally, independent observers did not notice noticeable differences in the girls’ behavior during the presentation. This suggests that while the intervention may change how girls think about and approach their emotions, it may take time before these changes are visibly evident in high-stress situations.

An exciting element of the research involved using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to monitor changes in brain activity associated with emotion regulation. Preliminary findings suggest that the E-MIND group may have shown more adaptive brain responses to emotional regulation, although the results are still in the early stages.

Rudolph cautioned that while the study shows promise, it is still too early to say whether this intervention could be a solution for girls at high risk for emotional disorders. Nevertheless, she believes the low-cost intervention has the potential to be widely used in schools and community health programs to help all adolescent girls build emotional resilience.

“We’re just beginning to understand how this intervention affects the brain, but the results so far are encouraging,” Rudolph said. “This could be a tool that helps girls better manage their emotions during a pivotal time in their lives.”

As the study suggests, empowering teenage girls with a growth mindset about their emotions could be a game-changer in fostering long-term emotional well-being, potentially reducing emotional distress and building the foundation for healthier emotional responses in adulthood.

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