Shao and colleagues evaluated the impact of the DNA-V program, culturally adapted for Chinese adolescents, on reducing their anxiety. The DNA-V (Discover, Notice, Advise-Value) program combines mindfulness-based social-emotional learning (SEL) and cognitive behavioral strategies to enhance psychological flexibility and lower anxiety. Cognitive defusion is considered highly related to psychological flexibility, so that the study particularly examined cognitive fusion—where individuals are entangled in their thoughts, potentially increasing psychological distress—as a mediating factor in anxiety reduction.
The researchers randomly divided six eighth-grade classes from a Beijing urban middle school into three groups, each receiving different interventions: a face-to-face DNA-V group (40 students), a web-based DNA-V group (56 students), and an active control group undergoing a positive psychology program (50 students). Over six weeks, the treatment groups attended a 40-minute session weekly, with the face-to-face group in a classroom and the web-based group via an online game format.
Students completed the Chinese Secondary School Students Anxiety scale and Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire before the program (T1), immediately after (T2), and two months post-intervention (T3). Results from a repeated measures ANOVA indicated that only the face-to-face group showed a significant reduction in anxiety and cognitive fusion scores from T1 to T3 and from T2 to T3. No significant changes were observed in the web-based or control groups over time.
Further analysis used a mediation model to explore the underlying mechanism of the DNV-A intervention. Findings revealed that the face-to-face DNA-V intervention directly reduced anxiety (difference between T3 and T1) without the mediating role of decreased cognitive fusion (difference between T2 and T1). The web-based intervention showed neither direct nor indirect effects on anxiety.
These findings suggest that the culturally adapted face-to-face DNA-V program could be an effective school-based intervention for reducing anxiety among adolescents, although cognitive fusion did not mediate this effect.
Source: Shao, S., Zhang, Y., Yang, M., Li, C., Zhao, R., Liu, Z., Wu, M., Liu, Y., Zhu, Z., & Cui, L. (2024). The effectiveness of the DNA-V program on reducing anxiety among Chinese adolescents: Outcomes of the face-to-face and web-based versions. Journal of School Psychology, 106, 101357. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2024.101357