The Science of Effective Encouragement

Asaba, M., Santos, M., Jara-Ettinger, J., & Leonard, J. A. (2025). Adolescents report being most motivated by encouragement from people who know their abilities and the domain. Developmental Psychology, 61(9), 1793–1807. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001920

Introduction

In a useful corrective to “one-size-fits-all” positivity, Asaba and colleagues (2025) argues that encouragement motivates adolescents only when it comes from someone perceived as knowing both the domain (e.g., math) and the student’s ability in that domain. Across STEM-relevant scenarios, the authors frame encouragement as informational: students interpret “You can do it!” partly as a forecast of future success, and they weigh forecasts by the speaker’s knowledge state.

Methods

Across three preregistered, school-based online studies (U.S. adolescents; racially/economically diverse), students rated (a) how much they would seek encouragement and (b) how motivated they would feel after generic encouragement. Studies 1a–1b manipulated speakers’ domain vs. ability knowledge in vignettes; Studies 2a–2b parametrically varied both knowledge types and measured confidence in speakers’ performance predictions; Study 3 used real people in students’ lives (parents/teachers/peers) and students’ own ratings of each person’s knowledge.

Results

Students reported the highest seeking and motivation for “knowledge overlap” encouragers (domain + ability knowledge; Studies 1a–1b). Confidence in speakers’ predictions increased linearly with amounts of both knowledge types (Studies 2a–2b). In real-life nominations, higher perceived domain and ability knowledge predicted seeking/motivation even after accounting for general support; older students reported less encouragement-seeking overall (Study 3).

Discussion

The commentary-level takeaway is pragmatic: adolescents do not reject encouragement—they audit its credibility. The authors also cautions that supportive relationships and perceived knowledge are intertwined, and that self-report vignette designs may not perfectly map onto behavior; nevertheless, the convergence across manipulated, parametric, and naturalistic measures strengthens confidence in the core effect.

Implications for mentoring programs

Match mentors for domain proximity + individualized knowledge (shared activities, ongoing observation). Train mentors to reference specific evidence of growth (signals ability knowledge) and to stay task-calibrated (signals domain knowledge). Prefer sustained pairings over “guest motivators.”

Read the full paper here.