Metacognitive Intervention Facilitating a Growth Mindset for Youth at Risk: The Contribution of Occupational Therapy Practitioners to the Educational Team

Background: Youth at risk often experience adaptation difficulties. Functional metacognitive interventions, outlined by occupational therapy practitioners, may support their daily performance. Aim: To examine a metacognitive educational intervention that facilitates a growth mindset and strategy use, with the unique contribution of occupational therapy practitioners to the educational team. Method: Forty-six at-risk special education high school students ages 16–18 yr (M = 16.5, SD = 0.62) participated in “Journeys”—Exploring Beyond Classroom Walls, a 2-mo intervention that encouraged active student participation in designing and executing learning activities. Outcome Measures: This study used the 10-item Weekly Calendar Planning Activity (WCPA) to measure change in cognitive performance and awareness and the “Kind of Person” scale to measure change in growth mindset pre–post intervention. Findings: Significant improvements were observed in WCPA accuracy (p < .05) and efficiency (p < .01) scores postintervention. Enhanced awareness of performance time was evident following the intervention. Although there was no significant change in overall mindset scores, the growth mindset scores of 11th-grade students decreased significantly after the intervention, whereas those of 10th-grade students did not (p < .01). Conclusions: Experiences with the Journeys intervention provide opportunities for students to engage in complex and demanding daily activities and for occupational therapy practitioners to guide teachers on how they could act as mediators to direct students’ attention to their abilities and how these may assist or interfere with performance. This process is expected to facilitate greater awareness of strategy use in a range of functional domains. Plain-Language Summary: Youth at risk often live in conditions that can endanger their safety, health, and development. They also experience heightened vulnerability, which can lead to behavioral problems with outcomes such as low academic performance, delinquency, feeling alienated, and dropping out of high school. This study examined how occupational therapy practitioners can use an intervention called Journeys with youth at risk in an educational setting. Journeys encourages students to actively participate in designing and executing learning activities. Occupational therapy practitioners evaluated and monitored students’ use of strategies and how they reflected on their performance. The occupational therapy practitioners shared this understanding with teachers to guide them in how they could support students’ growth mindset, self-perception, greater awareness, and attitudes toward daily performance and challenges.