Symptoms of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress and low mental well-being of rescued child labourers Mental and Behavioural Disorders
Conditions
Interventions
The researchers will carry out three parallel two-group randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in Bangladesh, India and Nepal (one per country), where the primary aim is to assess feasibility and accepta
Sponsors
Queen Mary University of London
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Inclusion criteria
Inclusion criteria: 1. Rescued from child labour and is not currently engaged in child labour 2. Aged 12-17 years 3. Has a history of child labour that occurred before 14 years of age for at least 6 months 4. Has symptoms of anxiety or depression measured by the Youth Inventory-4R (YI-4R) scale 5. Is not currently suicidal or self-harming 6. Does not receive intensive psychotherapy 7. Able to participate in a group setting (e.g. able to cope with being in a group) 8. Has expressive and receptive verbal communication skills 9. Does not have intellectual disability 10. Does not have physical disability that would prevent participation in arts activities 11. Does not plan to leave the shelter soon and has time to participate in the programme
Exclusion criteria
Exclusion criteria: 1. Currently engaged in child labour 2. Aged 17 years 3. Does not have a history of child labour that occurred before 14 years of age for at least 6 months 4. Does not have symptoms of anxiety or depression measured by the Youth Inventory-4R (YI-4R) scale 5. Is currently suicidal or self-harming 6. Receives intensive psychotherapy 7. Not able to participate in a group setting (e.g. not able to cope with being in a group) 8. Does not have expressive and receptive verbal communication skills 9. Has intellectual disability 10. Has a physical disability that would prevent participation in arts activities 11. Plans to leave the shelter soon and has no time to participate in the programme
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| Feasibility and acceptability of the arts-based programme. To assess feasibility, the researchers will collect the following numbers for each country separately but also aggregated across countries: a) shelters contacted, b) shelters agreed, c) participants screened, d) potentially eligible participants, e) participants consenting to take part and completing the baseline assessment, f) participants consenting to be randomised, g) participants completing the 1-week post-assessment, h) participants completing the 3-month assessment, i) mean number and range of intervention sessions completed, and j) data completeness for each symptom measure. To evaluate feasibility, the researchers will calculate uptake at the level of the shelter (proportion of shelters who agree from those contacted) and individual (proportion of young people who consented and assented from those who were eligible and invited) and the retention of individual participants (proportion of young people who complete the 3-month follow-up assessment from amongst those who completed the baseline assessment). Acceptability will be assessed through engagement, tolerability, and safety. To evaluate these aspects of acceptability, all participants in the intervention group will be asked to rate the intervention for how much they liked/disliked it, found it helpful/unhelpful, the degree of motivation to attend sessions, and whether they would recommend it to a friend. Any serious adverse events (SAEs) directly linked to the study will be noted as a further index of safety. Young people who received the intervention (n = 7 per country) will be invited to in-depth individual interviews. Topic guides were developed by the research team. However, once they receive ethical approvals, the researchers will ask the Lived Experience Advisory Panel to review the language used in the topic guides. Topic guides include questions around young peoples’ perceptions of the intervention: whether participants found the int | — |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| 1. Symptoms of depression measured using a self-report questionnaire - the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-8) at baseline, weekly during the intervention (6 weeks), 1 week post the intervention and 3 months post the intervention. 2. Symptoms of anxiety measured using a self-report questionnaire - the Generalised Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire (GAD-7) at baseline, weekly during the intervention (6 weeks), 1 week post the intervention and 3 months post the intervention 3. Post-traumatic stress symptoms measured using a self-report questionnaire - the Child Revised Impact of Events Scale (CRIES-8) at baseline, weekly during the intervention (6 weeks), 1 week post the intervention and 3 months post the intervention 4. Emotional and behavioural problems measured using a self-report and informant-report questionnaire - the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) at baseline, weekly during the intervention (6 weeks), 1 week post the intervention and 3 months post the intervention 5. Mental well-being measured using the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scales (WEMWBS) at baseline, weekly during the intervention (6 weeks), 1 week post the intervention and 3 months post the intervention | — |
Countries
Bangladesh, India, Nepal
Contacts
Public ContactLaura Paulauskaite
Outcome results
None listed