How to increase academic performance in children with oppositional defiant disorder? An implicit theory effect D. Da Fonseca a, c, * , F. Cury b , A. Santos c , P. Sarrazin d , F. Poinso a, c , C. Deruelle c a Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Unit, Sainte Marguerite Hospital, 270 Bd Sainte Marguerite, 13009 Marseille, France b CNRS University of Provence and South University of Toulon Var, France c Mediterranean Institute of Cognitive Neurosciences, CNRS, UMR 6193, Marseille, France d University of Grenoble, France article info Article history: Received 17 February 2009 Received in revised form 21 January 2010 Accepted 25 January 2010 Keywords: Mental disorders Oppositional defiant disorder Children Implicit theories of intelligence CBT IQ abstract The aim of the present study was to determine whether the implicit theory effect extends to children with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), with academic difficulties. Twenty-five male children, aged 8– 11 years with ODD were randomly assigned to one of two experimental conditions (Incremental Theory highlighting the possibility of self-improvement vs. control). An increase of cognitive performance (IQ) was found for children with ODD in the incremental condition, but not in the control condition. This cognitive improvement could be viewed as a protective factor for children and adolescents with ODD on academic setting. Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction In the last decade, several studies have suggested that it is possible to increase academic performance of normally developing adolescents by manipulating their ability beliefs (Aronson, Fried, & Good, 2002; Cury, Elliot, Da Fonseca, & Moller 2006; Good, Aronson, & Inzlicht, 2003; Henderson & Dweck, 1990). In these studies, a selection of participants was informed that the ability in question was highly malleable (incremental theory), whereas others were informed that this ability was fixed (entity theory). Interestingly, this belief manipulation was found to predict performance in nor- mally developing adolescents with higher levels of performance for subjects in the malleable ability condition than for those in the fixed condition (Dweck & Molden, 2005). To date only one study has addressed this issue in adolescents with mental disorders, which generally have poor academic performance relative to their normally developing peers. Recently, Da Fonseca et al. (2008) have demonstrated that belief manipula- tions affect IQ-test performance of adolescents with generalized anxiety disorders (GAD; Da Fonseca et al., 2008). This study revealed that, relative to a control condition, incremental theory has a positive effect on IQ-test performance controlled for a base- line level. In other words, when young adolescents are confronted with a context in which intelligence is highly malleable, they tend to show substantial IQ performance improvement as compared to a control condition. The aim of the present study was to determine whether this implicit theory effect extends to young adolescents with mental disorders other than GAD, such as those with oppositional defiant disorders, which also present substantial academic difficulties. Importantly, we used exactly the same experimental design as that used by Da Fonseca et al. (2008). Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) is one of the most common childhood psychiatric disorders with a pattern of nega- tive, hostile and deviant behaviour that is severe enough to impair the child’s functioning (American Psychiatric Association, 1994; Burke, Loeber, & Birmaher, 2002). Indeed, these behaviours interfere with learning and school adjustment as children with ODD having significantly lower grades than typically developing children. Also, children with ODD are more likely to be placed in special classes at school than are children with other psychiatric disorders (Greene et al., 2002). Early intervention in children with ODD should thus target a reduction of risk factors, such as * Corresponding author. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Unit, Sainte Marguerite Hospital, 270 Bd Sainte Marguerite, 13009 Marseille, France. Tel.: þ33 4 91 74 62 53; fax: þ33 4 9174 42 62. E-mail address: david.dafonseca@ap-hm.fr (D. Da Fonseca). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jbtep 0005-7916/$ – see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2010.01.008 J. Behav. Ther. & Exp. Psychiat. 41 (2010) 234–237