Feasibility and acceptability of a multicomponent, group psychological intervention for adolescents with psychosocial distress in public schools of Pakistan: a feasibility cluster randomized controlled trial (cRCT)

Hamdani, Syed Usman, Huma, Zill-e, Tamizuddin-Nizami, Asad, Baneen, Um-ul, Suleman, Nadia, Javed, Hashim, Malik, Aiysha, Wang, Duolao ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2788-2464, Mazhar, Samra, Khan, Shahzad Alam, Minhas, Fareed Aslam and Rahman, Atif (2022) 'Feasibility and acceptability of a multicomponent, group psychological intervention for adolescents with psychosocial distress in public schools of Pakistan: a feasibility cluster randomized controlled trial (cRCT)'. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, Vol 16, Issue 1, e47.

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Abstract

Background: Child and adolescent mental health problems are a global public mental health priority. However, there is a lack of evidence-based scalable psychological interventions for adolescents living in low resource settings. This trial was designed to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of delivering the World Health Organization’s Early Adolescent Skills for Emotions (EASE) intervention at public schools in a rural sub-district in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

Methods: A two arm, single blinded, feasibility cluster randomized controlled trial with mixed-methods evaluation was conducted with 59 adolescents and their caregivers from 8 public schools. In the 4 intervention arm schools, 6 non-specialist facilitators delivered the culturally-adapted EASE group sessions to the adolescents (n = 29) and their caregivers with desired fidelity under the supervision of in-country supervisors.

Results: The participation rate of adolescents in the intervention sessions was 83%. The intervention strategies were implemented by the adolescents. However, attending biweekly sessions at schools was challenging for caregivers with only 50% caregivers attending the sessions.

Conclusions: The results of this study support the feasibility and acceptability of delivering this culturally adapted intervention through non-specialist facilitators in school settings in Pakistan and pave the way to conduct a fully powered cluster randomized controlled trial to test the effectiveness of intervention to improve psychological outcomes in adolescents.

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	WA Public Health > WA 20.5 Research (General) WA Public Health > WA 30 Socioeconomic factors in public health (General) WM Psychiatry > WM 20 Research (General) WS Pediatrics > By Age Groups > WS 460 Adolescence (General)
Faculty: Department:	Clinical Sciences & International Health > Clinical Sciences Department
Digital Object Identifer (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1186/s13034-022-00480-z
SWORD Depositor:	JISC Pubrouter
Depositing User:	JISC Pubrouter
Date Deposited:	28 Sep 2022 12:57
Last Modified:	14 Jun 2023 10:06
URI:	https://archive.lstmed.ac.uk/id/eprint/20625

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