Adolescent Acts of Kindness Intervention

Adolescents will complete a 4-week intervention, during which they will either complete a kind act for others, complete a kind act for themselves, or report their daily activities three days per week. Psychological and physiological measures will be indexed before and after the intervention.

Stress and early adversity have been found to influence immune function via enhanced expression of the conserved transcriptional response to adversity (CTRA) genetic profile. Expression of this genetic profile was reduced in adults who completed a prosocial behavior intervention. This project aims to implement this intervention in adolescents. 90 high school students will be recruited and assigned to one of three groups (30/group). Participants will either conduct 3 acts of kindness for themselves, conduct 3 acts of kindness for others, or report about their day 3 times per week for 4 weeks. During this intervention, they will receive text messages 3 days per week instructing them to complete their respective act. Participants will provide a brief description of this act that evening, as well as complete brief surveys at the end of the week for each week of the intervention. Participants will come into the lab twice, once before and once after the 4-week intervention. During these lab sessions participants will complete survey measures, have their heart rate measured, and have a blood draw conducted by a trained phlebotomist. Participants' parents will also complete a brief survey to provide demographic information and an idea of what prosocial behaviors participants witnessed in their home. The investigators will use these data to assess the effects of prosocial behavior on health and the psychological mechanisms underlying these effects. At the second study visit, participants will be given the opportunity to donate part of their study payment to a charity to measure prosociality. Any donations will be vetted with the psychology department's accounting group prior to making any donations in the university's name. Scott Monatlik, Director, Tax and Information Practices, at smonatlik@finance.ucla.edu or (310) 794-6724 will be contacted and information regarding the appropriate steps to take to ensure that the donation is made to an acceptable charity prior to any donations. Actual helping behavior (donations) is measured to provide an ecologically valid experimental evaluation of prosociality rather than traditional metrics of computerized, fictional giving. Conceptual frameworks from developmental and health psychology guide the hypothesis that prosocial behavior will influence adolescents.

90 participants will randomly be assigned to one of three interventions. Participants will complete a 4-week intervention. All outcomes will be measured before and after the intervention, and some psychological measures will be collected weekly throughout the intervention.

Participants will be told that the investigatos are studying the daily lives of teens. They will not be informed of the other arms of the experiment.

Participants will complete the 'Other-Focused Acts of Kindness Intervention' by performing acts of kindness for others. They be asked to complete 3 kind acts for others throughout the week for 4 weeks. They will receive text messages three days per week (either Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday or Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday) and will report on their kind act later that day.

Participants will complete the 'Self-Focused Acts of Kindness Intervention' by performing acts of kindness for themselves. They be asked to complete 3 kind acts for others throughout the week for 4 weeks. They will receive text messages three days per week (either Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday or Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday) and will report on their kind act later that day.

Participants will complete the 'Daily Reports' and be asked to report their daily activities throughout the week for 4 weeks. They will receive text messages three days per week (either Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday or Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday) and will list activities from their day.

Participants engage in positive behaviors by completing acts of kindness for themselves three times per week. These acts should require effort and be outside of an individual's normal routine.

Participants engage in positive behaviors by completing acts of kindness for others three times per week. These acts should require effort and be outside of an individual's normal routine.

Participants will report their daily activities three times per week. Aside from reporting at the end of the day, no changes should be made to the individual's normal routine.

Average Positive Affect as assessed by the positive affect subscale of the Affect Adjective Checklist. An average is taken across four items, and scores range from 1 to 5 with higher scores indicating more positive affect over the week.

Change in inflammatory gene expression from baseline to one week following the intervention as assessed by assays of the conserved transcriptional response to adversity profile of gene expression in leukocytes.

Change in average psychological flourishing from baseline to one week following the intervention as assessed by Mental Health Continuum-Short Form at week 5. An average is taken across 20 items, and scores range from 1 to 6, with higher values representing greater psychological flourishing.

Average negative affect as assessed by the negative affect subscale of the Affect Adjective Checklist. An average is taken across five items, and scores range from 1 to 5 with higher scores indicating more negative affect over the week.

Average stress as assessed by the Perceived Stress Scale. An average is taken across 10 items, and scores range from 1 to 5 with higher scores indicating greater stress.

Sleep quality as assessed by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). The assessment has 7 components, each scored from 0 to 3. A sum is taken across these components, such that total scores range from 0 to 21 with higher scores indicating poorer sleep.

Change in inflammation from baseline to one week following the intervention as assessed by the concentration of a variety of inflammatory cytokines (e.g., IL-6, IL-1).

Change in RSA from baseline to one week following the intervention as assessed by high-frequency heart rate variability during paced breathing.

Average social connection as assessed by the relatedness subscale of the Balanced Measure of Psychological Needs. An average is taken across 6 items, and scores range from 1 to 5 with higher scores indicating greater social connection.

Donation as assessed by the amount of money participants donated (maximum of $10) to a charity for foster youth.