Laura Lynne Armstrong, Emmalyne Watt, Catherine Laura Potter, Brent L Epperson
{"title":"Meaning mindset theory: a transdiagnostic approach to mental health promotion and intervention for children.","authors":"Laura Lynne Armstrong, Emmalyne Watt, Catherine Laura Potter, Brent L Epperson","doi":"10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1467332","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>A transdiagnostic approach is increasingly recognized as crucial in the prevention or treatment of child internalizing and externalizing mental health concerns. There is substantial overlap and comorbidity among various mental health concerns and the onset of one mental illness elevates the risk of others, underscoring the potential limitations of singular-focused mental health education or treatment. Meaning Mindset Theory (MMT) is a transdiagnostic framework developed and evaluated over the past decade in Canada as a promising new approach. MMT emphasizes agency over thoughts and behaviors, empathy and social competence skills, and meaningful engagement to enhance resilience for both internalizing and externalizing symptoms. The DREAM Program-Developing Resilience through Emotions, Attitudes, and Meaning is a mental health education program grounded in MMT principles. This program has enhanced meaning mindset-agency over thoughts and behaviors, hope for a future that is good, positive self-concept, and openness to learning, new experiences, and feelings-as well as both internalizing and externalizing mental health. To date, the DREAM program, as well as MMT more broadly, has been tested in diverse populations with school-aged children, families, neurodiverse and intellectually gifted young people, homeless men, and Black families, among others. Future research should explore the efficacy of an MMT in therapeutic settings compared to standard treatments, potentially enhancing mental health intervention strategies for Canadian children and families.</p>","PeriodicalId":12525,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Psychology","volume":"15 ","pages":"1467332"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6000,"publicationDate":"2025-01-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11802547/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Frontiers in Psychology","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1467332","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2024/1/1 0:00:00","PubModel":"eCollection","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
A transdiagnostic approach is increasingly recognized as crucial in the prevention or treatment of child internalizing and externalizing mental health concerns. There is substantial overlap and comorbidity among various mental health concerns and the onset of one mental illness elevates the risk of others, underscoring the potential limitations of singular-focused mental health education or treatment. Meaning Mindset Theory (MMT) is a transdiagnostic framework developed and evaluated over the past decade in Canada as a promising new approach. MMT emphasizes agency over thoughts and behaviors, empathy and social competence skills, and meaningful engagement to enhance resilience for both internalizing and externalizing symptoms. The DREAM Program-Developing Resilience through Emotions, Attitudes, and Meaning is a mental health education program grounded in MMT principles. This program has enhanced meaning mindset-agency over thoughts and behaviors, hope for a future that is good, positive self-concept, and openness to learning, new experiences, and feelings-as well as both internalizing and externalizing mental health. To date, the DREAM program, as well as MMT more broadly, has been tested in diverse populations with school-aged children, families, neurodiverse and intellectually gifted young people, homeless men, and Black families, among others. Future research should explore the efficacy of an MMT in therapeutic settings compared to standard treatments, potentially enhancing mental health intervention strategies for Canadian children and families.
期刊介绍:
Frontiers in Psychology is the largest journal in its field, publishing rigorously peer-reviewed research across the psychological sciences, from clinical research to cognitive science, from perception to consciousness, from imaging studies to human factors, and from animal cognition to social psychology. Field Chief Editor Axel Cleeremans at the Free University of Brussels is supported by an outstanding Editorial Board of international researchers. This multidisciplinary open-access journal is at the forefront of disseminating and communicating scientific knowledge and impactful discoveries to researchers, academics, clinicians and the public worldwide. The journal publishes the best research across the entire field of psychology. Today, psychological science is becoming increasingly important at all levels of society, from the treatment of clinical disorders to our basic understanding of how the mind works. It is highly interdisciplinary, borrowing questions from philosophy, methods from neuroscience and insights from clinical practice - all in the goal of furthering our grasp of human nature and society, as well as our ability to develop new intervention methods.