None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
The rangatahi (young people) of Aotearoa (New Zealand) are experiencing significant and increasing challenges to their well-being, with 23% of high school students reporting significant depressive symptoms; 6% percent attempting suicide; and 19% having difficulties accessing mental health support each year. In recent years, rapidly evolving smart technology has led to the development of a range of digital mental health interventions including information-oriented websites for learning about stress management, game-based online therapies for common mental health problems and self-help applications with which to improve well-being. During the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, our team was concerned about international trends in psychological issues impacting rangatahi in Aotearoa as social distancing and lockdowns commenced and developed an evidence-based well-being app called 'Whitu - seven ways in seven days'. The app includes cognitive behaviour therapy, mindfulness and gratitude paradigms. During an open trial and randomised controlled trial, this app was shown to improve wellbeing, self-compassion, sleep, stress levels and depression in users. We are now planning on adapting the app for high school students and wish to test the efficacy and acceptability of app with 13-15 year olds via a further randomised controlled trial. We will recruit 90 participants from two NZ high schools and randomise them to an intervention group or waitlist group. We will collect wellbeing-related outcome measures at baseline, 1 month and 3 months.
Interventions
The Whitu For School app is designed to help rangatahi learn evidence-based strategies for maintaining and improving their well-being.
It includes seven modules that can be trialled over a week or at a user’s own pace: 1. Feel (recognising emotions); 2. Relax (relaxation techniques); 3. Be kind to yourself (self-compassion exercises); 4. Be thankful (gratitude exercises); 5. Connect (increasing social support); 6. Look after you body (information on diet, exercise, sleep); and 7. Goal setting
The Whitu For School app is designed to help rangatahi learn evidence-based strategies for maintaining and improving their well-being. It includes seven modules that can be trialled over a week or at a user’s own pace: 1. Feel (recognising emotions); 2. Relax (relaxation techniques); 3. Be kind to yourself (self-compassion exercises); 4. Be thankful (gratitude exercises); 5. Connect (increasing social support); 6. Look after you body (information on diet, exercise, sleep); and 7. Goal setting (setting Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound (SMART) goals). Modules contain cartoon-based explanations and exercises, take 5-15 minutes each and can be completed in a flexible manner according to user preference. Users are encouraged to explore this broad range of strategies, discover the ones that best work for them and keep using them over time. Although there is no expected frequency of use, badge rewards and daily notifications encourage app completion and practice of preferred strategies. Data entered by users are stored on their devices in an unencrypted SQLite database and can be safely removed at any time by deleting the app
Sponsors
Auckland Medical Research Foundation
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Prevention
Masking
Open (masking not used)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
13 Years to 15 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
Eligible participants will be high school students aged between 13-15 years, who have a smartphone (Android or iPhone), who are of any ethnicity, and who are fluent in English or Te Reo Maori). Purposive sampling will be undertaken to ensure that 33% of participants are Maori. To improve equity, students who do not have a smartphone, but wish to take part, will be loaned one for the duration of the study.
Exclusion criteria
Students will be excluded if they are not aged 13-15 years and are unwilling to provide paired parental consent/individual assent.
Outcome results
None listed