Adolescents experiencing symptoms of psychosocial distress. Mental and Behavioural Disorders
Conditions
Interventions
Intervention:
The Early Adolescent Skills for Emotions (EASE) intervention program is a new, brief, group psychological intervention program (Dawson et al., 2019) based on Cognitive Behavioural Thera
Sponsors
Benazir Bhutto Hospital
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Inclusion criteria
Inclusion criteria: 1. Adolescents aged 13-15 years 2. Living with parents/primary caregivers, attending high public schools in the study area. 3. Written parent/primary caregiver informed consent or witnessed consent (in case the parent/primary caregiver is unable to read and write, the informed consent will be obtained parent/primary caregiver in presence of a witness) and adolescent assent for participation in the study. 4. Screened positive on self-reported PSC (cut- off score = 28). 5. Where there is more than one eligible child in a family unit, we will include the youngest eligible child.
Exclusion criteria
Exclusion criteria: 1. Adolescents at high risk of imminent suicide as reported by the students themselves, or parents/primary caregivers, or identified by the trained assessment team during screening. The suicide risk will be assessed by administering the screening item for suicide from the PHQ-9-Adolescents version. This will be supplemented by assessing suicidal thoughts based on WHO mhGAP guidelines for assessing current or historical suicidal (within one month) thoughts, plans, and attempts. 2. Adolescents with acute medical conditions who require immediate or on-going in-patient medical or psychiatric care, as reported by student themselves or parents/primary caregivers or identified by the trained assessment team during screening. 4. Adolescents with deafness, blindness and speech difficulties or with a severe mental, neurological or substance use disorders (e.g. psychosis, mutism, intellectual disability, autism, or drug dependence) identified by the trained assessment team during screening.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| Symptoms of psychosocial distress in adolescents are measured using the self-reported Paediatric Symptoms Checklist (PSC) at baseline, immediate post-intervention, and 3-months post-intervention. | — |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| Measured at baseline, immediate post-intervention, and 3-months post-intervention: 1. Internalzing symptoms measured using Revised Children Anxiety and Depression Scale 2. Adolescent wellbeing measured by the Short Warwick Edinburgh Wellbeing Scale (SWEWS) 3. Adolescent quality of life measured by the Paediatric Quality of Life (PedsQL)-child version 4. Adolescent problem solving skills measured by Social Problem-Solving Inventory-Revised Short Form 5. Adolescent somatic complaints measured by somatic symptoms checklist 6. Adolescent perceived emotional support measured by Perceived Emotional/Personal Support Scale 7. Adolescent symptoms of depression measured by Patient Health Questionnaire- Adolescent version (PHQ-A) 8. Academic performance measured through teacher-rated student academic achievement record form 9. Child dropouts measured through school administration record 10. Parent-child relationship measured by Alabama parenting scale 11. Parent’s wellbeing measured by PedsQL-family impact module | — |
Countries
Pakistan
Outcome results
None listed