The online intervention The Growth Factory: developing a ‘growth mindset’!

The aim of this study is to test the effectiveness of the online intervention ‘The Growth Factory’ in a target group of youth with intellectual and/or physical disabilities (12-23 years). The Growth Factory teaches youth an incremental theory in which feelings, behavior and abilities are conceptualized as malleable. The Growth Factory is a short online intervention with six sessions and a booster session. Each session takes about 20-30 minutes. Youth are recruited from a residential care institution and a special education school for youth with intellectual and/or physical disabilities in The Netherlands. We expect youth in the intervention group (N=60) to show greater improvements in mindset, empowerment, self-worth, motivation, therapeutic alliance and willpower and greater reductions in internalizing and externalizing problems and the desire for vengeance after social exclusion in comparison to youth in the control group (N=60). Measurements take place at pretest, posttest and follow-up after 3 months and 6 months.

We expect youth in the intervention group to show greater improvements in mindset, empowerment, self-worth, motivation, therapeutic alliance, willpower and greater reductions in internalizing and externalizing problems and the desire for vengeance after social exclusion in comparison to youth in the control group.

T1: Pretest (all questionnaires)

T2: Posttest – after session 6 (all questionnaires)

T3: Three months after session 6 (MQ + BMP-Y)

T4: Six months after session 6 (all questionnaires + experimental tasks)

Wave 1: De Groeifabriek - Oct 2015 - June 2016

Wave 2: De Groeifabriek - Dec 2015 – Sep 2016
Wave 3: De Groeifabriek - April 2016 – Dec 2016

The online intervention The Growth Factory is based on the scientific research on the incremental theory by Caroll Dweck and David Yeager. Implicit theories about intelligence and personality form the basis for The Growth Factory. On the one hand we have the fixed theory. With a fixed mindset, people consider personality, competence and intelligence to be static. They think that people cannot really change. On the other hand we have the incremental change theory. People who have a growth mindset believe that as a person you can change, grow and develop. With a growth mindset, people consider personality, competence and intelligence to be malleable.



The aim of The Growth Factory is to teach youth an incremental theory in which feelings, behavior and abilities are conceptualized as improvable. For example, youth learn that our brain is always in development and by training new connections are built or existing connections get stronger. Youth learn to face effort, adversity and feedback as an opportunity for development. Youth also learn to use the growth formula: effort + correct strategy + help from others. Furthermore, they learn to change negative thoughts into positive , rational thoughts (i.e. growth thoughts).

Participants in the intervention group participate in six sessions of The Growth Factory. After 3-months youth will receive a booster session repeating the content of the Growth Factory. A session takes 20-30 minutes. The Growth Factory is innovative as it uses an online approach. By using an online intervention we could adapt to the information processing needs of youth with intellectual disabilities, such as visualization, structure and adjust to their experiences.

The structure of each session is:

- an introduction by an individually chosen buddy with a summary of the previous session and an introduction to today’s topic;

- an animation clip explaining the content of the session together with the possibility of repetition of the same animation clip;

- two interactive assignments followed by a summary provided by the buddy and a mentioning of next week’s topic.

Youth will receive two short messages by text- or mail during the week after each session with a reminder or assignment. This will help them to make the transfer from the online session to daily life.



The sessions will take place at school during school time on a laptop or computer. Participants follow each session individually and are assisted by a trainer.

Participants are randomized into the intervention group or control group using stratified randomization based on gender, age and intelligence. Both the intervention and control group have full access to usual mental and/or physical care. The Growth Factory should be seen as an add-on intervention, strengthening usual care, not substituting usual care. If The Growth Factory shows to be effective, in this randomized control trial, all youth in the control group will be provided the opportunity to participate in The Growth Factory after the study is completed.