Group psychological counseling-based growth mindset intervention to promote active aging behaviors in older people: protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND

Although active aging is widely accepted and applied in various countries, research on active aging has predominantly focused on environmental interventions, often overlooking the autonomy of older people. This study addresses this gap by using group psychological counseling technique to implement growth mindset interventions, aiming to stimulate older people's autonomy and foster their active aging behaviors.

METHODS

This study employs a randomized controlled trial design with two groups: an autonomous intervention group and a usual control group. Each participant in the autonomous intervention group will be assigned to one fixed group of four to seven people and participate in four structured group psychological counseling-based growth mindset intervention sessions. The usual control group will engage in community activities of equivalent duration. The study will take place in the eastern and western provinces of China. Indicators of active aging and positive psychology orientation, including growth mindset, active learning behaviors, active health behavior, active social participation behaviors, and active self-security behaviors will be evaluated to verify intervention effects at four timepoints (baseline, after the intervention, one month and three months after the intervention). The study will employ the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) to conduct qualitative interviews among the participants and community workers who participate in the autonomous intervention group. The Generalized Estimating Equation (GEE) model will be utilized to examine the intervention effect.

DISCUSSION

The study will focus on the autonomy of older people and design a structured, scalable group psychological counseling-based growth mindset intervention program, offering a novel pathway to fostering active aging behaviors and tackling the critical challenges posed by population aging. This is the first study that will validate the effectiveness of the growth mindset theory in behavioral interventions tailored to the older people population. To improve the scalability and replicability of the intervention program, the study will utilize TDF to explore the factors that facilitate or hinder the effectiveness of the growth mindset intervention.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

Hypotheses were registered on Aspredicted.org (#138686) on July 18, 2023, prospectively registered. The trial was registered on the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR2500095613) on January 9, 2025, retrospectively registered.