Adolescent Behavior Problem, Mental Health Wellness 1
Conditions
Keywords
mindfulness, youth leadership, youth wellbeing
Brief summary
The current study tests the feasibility and effectiveness of a youth intervention designed to provide meaningful leadership opportunities through the acquisition of leadership skills as well as mindfulness practice, LEAP: Leadership, Engagement, and youth Action Program with Mindfulness. The goal of this project is to determine whether the Leadership, Engagement, and youth Action Program with Mindfulness (LEAP) curriculum, which was developed with youth, is a feasible and effective intervention for fostering leadership and well-being. The investigators seek to understand whether LEAP can support wellbeing for youth as a strategy to increase youth mental, emotional, and behavioral (MEB) health.
Detailed description
The LEAP study will determine whether a 14-session program designed to provide leadership and mindfulness skills to youth is an effective and feasible intervention. The curriculum consists of 14 two-hour sessions delivered after school. The comparison group will take part in EnvisionIT, a college and career readiness program designed for students in grades 6 through 12. EnvisionIT aims to prepare students with essential skills including digital literacy, and college and career readiness. The comparison group will also have 14 two-hour group sessions. Both LEAP and EnvisionIT will be delivered by trained facilitators. All participants in LEAP and EnvisionIT will be assessed at four time points; facilitators will also complete interviews post-intervention and provide feedback on data fidelity and acceptability following each session. This record reports on the UH3 phase of the grant.
Interventions
The Leadership, Engagement, and youth Action Program with Mindfulness intervention (LEAP) was designed and co-created with youth to improve youth well-being by enhancing leadership opportunities and by developing mindfulness in day-to-day life. LEAP seeks to foster these improvements in youth and to increase youth mental, emotional, and behavioral health. Youth voice is incorporated into the intervention, with facilitators leading the first 7 sessions, and youth leading the remainder.
BEHAVIORALEnvisionIT
Participants in this arm will receive 14 sessions of EnvisionIT training, focused on preparing students with essential skills including digital literacy through competency in information technology, financial literacy, English language arts skills, and college and career readiness. All sessions will be delivered by facilitators trained in EnvisionIT.
Sponsors
Boston University Charles River Campus
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
SINGLE (Outcomes Assessor)
Masking description
Outcomes assessors will be masked to study condition.
Intervention model description
Individually Randomized Group Treatment Trial Design
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
14 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* Adolescents ages 14 and older in grades 9-12 during the Fall/Winter or in grades 9-11 during the Spring * Enrolled in a partner site in Massachusetts or Illinois * Adolescents are only included with parent consent and youth assent if they are under the age of 18. Adolescents at least 18 years old can provide consent.
Exclusion criteria
* They participated in the pilot phase (UG3) * They cannot commit to participation in the full study (e.g., attendance at all intervention sessions) * They are not in grades 9-12 at a partner site * Parent/guardian has a preferred consent language other than English or Spanish.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Engagement, Perseverance, Optimism, Connectedness, and Happiness (EPOCH; Kern et al., 2016) measure of adolescent wellbeing | Baseline, 2-3 months, 6 months, 9 months | 20-item, 5-point scale measuring five positive characteristics that support higher levels of wellbeing: Engagement, Perseverance, Optimism, Connectedness, and Happiness. The scale range is 1-5, higher scores indicate better wellbeing. |
| Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ; Goodman, 2001) | Baseline, 2-3 months, 6 months, 9 months | 25 item multiple choice questionnaire that measures internalizing and externalizing problems and prosocial behavior (emotional, conduct, hyperactivity-inattention, peer, prosocial). The scale range is 0-40, higher scores indicate worse difficulties. |
| Self-Rated Health 12-item Short-Form Survey (SF-12; Ware et al., 1996) | Baseline, 2-3 months, 6 months, 9 months | 12 item 5-point survey measuring general health, asking about overall health self-rating, ability to do daily activities, energy levels, and physical and emotional limitations. The scale range is 0-100, higher scores indicate better health. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Student Career Construction Inventory (Savickas, 2018) | Baseline, 2-3 months, 6 months, 9 months | 18 item measure 5-point survey measuring crystallizing a vocational self-concept, exploring to gather information about occupations, deciding to commit to an occupational choice, and preparing to implement that choice. Scale scores range from 1-5, with higher scores indicating greater focus on each of the four tasks of career choice construction. |
| Vocational Skills Self-Efficacy (VSSE; McWhirter et al., 2000) | Baseline, 2-3 months, 6 months, 9 months | 29 item 5-point survey measuring level of confidence to establish and work toward job goals. Scale scores range from 29-145, with higher scores indicating greater vocational self-efficacy. |
Countries
United States
Contacts
CONTACTJennifer Greif Green, PhD
CONTACTMario Cruz-Gonzalez, PhD
PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATORMario Cruz-Gonzalez, PhD
Massachusetts General Hospital
PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATORJennifer Greif Green, Ph
Boston University
Outcome results
None listed