The promotion of students curiosity to participate in a preventive programme

Abstract

The aim of this study was to increase students’ curiosity and motivation to participate in a preventive programme and to assess their involvement, use and satisfaction with the programme. The participants were 87 students from seven high schools in the Murcia Autonomous Region, Spain, who were randomly assigned to either receive motivational pre-intervention, or no pre-intervention at all, according to Deci and Ryan's (1985) self-determination theory, Rollnick and Miller's (1991) focus on the motivational interview and Prochaska, Norcross and Di Clemente's, (1994) stages of change. Promising evidence of the usefulness of pre intervention was found. A significant negative relation between curiosity about positive change and the participants’ anxiety as well as a positive relation with optimism were also found. The need for further study of intervention studies aimed at increasing adolescents’ interest in participating in programmes to prevent depressive symptoms is commented on. As a conclusion, the need to further investigate the variable of curiosity, both at an intervention level and at an assessment level is emphasised.