Youth Compass Plus

Psychological Well-being Clinical Trial

— YouthCompass+  

Official title:

The Effectiveness of the Youth Compass Plus: The Novel Five-week Web- and Mobile-based Acceptance- and Commitment Therapy Program to Promote Adolescent Psychological Flexibility and Well-being

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT04340206
• Other study ID #: 324638
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: September 8, 2020
• Est. completion date: August 31, 2021

Study information

• Verified date: May 2022
• Source: University of Jyvaskyla
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

The aim of this randomized control trial is to examine the effectiveness of a novel web- and mobile-based Acceptance and Commitment Therapy program (Youth Compass plus) to promote adolescents' psychological flexibility and well-being and subsequently support their successful transition from basic education to upper secondary education. Our aim is also to compare the efficacy of Youth Compass plus using either an eCoach providing automated personal support to the user or an eCoach and a Human Coach providing personal support to the user. Additionally, we will investigate whether the efficacy of the Youth Compass plus varies according to different individual and contextual factors.

Using the internet to deliver interventions is assumed to be particularly motivating for youth who enjoy spending time online using different social media. Web-based interventions have several advantages; they can include more information and treatment components than traditionally delivered treatments and they are accessible at any time and place. The five-week structured intervention is delivered using the novel web- and mobile-based program Youth Compass plus. Youth Compass plus has been developed based on the feedback for the Youth COMPASS pilot program (see ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03274934). The exercises of Youth Compass plus have been modified, visual aspects have been improved and new game-based interactive elements have been developed. In the Youth COMPASS pilot study, psychology students acted as (human) coaches for the users. While interaction with a personal coach increases commitment to the program, the need to train and supervise coaches limits large scale dissemination. To provide an alternative that is less demanding in terms of resources, we have developed a chatbot (eCoach) as a new feature within the new Youth Compass plus program. The automated eCoach provides personal support within the program and via text messages. The eCoach provides support and encouragement, reminds about using Youth Compass plus, sends individualized feedback, and recommends different exercises.

Description:

The aim of this randomized trial is to examine whether Youth Compass plus enhances adolescents' (a) psychological skills, particularly with respect to finding a purpose, and psychological flexibility and adaptation skills as the ACT process outcomes; (b) career preparation and psychological well-being as the proximal outcomes; and (c) the initiation of upper secondary education studies and engagement in upper secondary education as the distal outcomes.

In addition, our aim is to investigate the ACT processes and mediating mechanisms of the Youth Compass plus program, and to explore the extent to which the effectiveness of the Youth Compass plus varies according to the differences in various individual and contextual factors.

H1: The study expects that the Youth Compass plus is more effective than no intervention. Youth Compass plus is expected to promote ACT proximal youth outcomes, as well as the youth distal outcomes.

H2: In addition, the study expects that the Youth Compass plus will promote the distal outcomes through enhancing the ACT process outcomes and the proximal outcomes.

H3: The study expects that Youth Compass plus is more effective for those adolescents who accept the intervention well, take part intensively and diversely in different exercises, as well as among the adolescents who are initially highly emotionally reactive.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 348
• Est. completion date: August 31, 2021
• Est. primary completion date: December 15, 2020
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 14 Years to 16 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria:

Approximately 600-1000 Finnish 14-16 year old adolescents from non-clinical school-age population will fill in a pre-questionnaire. Based on this data the participants for the randomized control trial will be selected from the two gender-balanced groups of Finnish adolescents:

1. Adolescents (n = 150) who have heightened (pre-clinical) level of symptoms of stress/anxiety/depression in the screening measures (no diagnosis is required for participation).

2. Randomly chosen adolescents (n=150) who have no symptoms of stress/anxiety/depression in the screening measures

Adolescents from both groups are randomly assigned in three conditions: (a) five weeks of Youth Compass plus with support from chatbot + face-to-face support (altogether two face-to-face meetings); b) five-weeks of Youth Compass plus with support from chatbot only; or (c) no intervention. At the baseline (fall 2020) the participants will be ninth-graders facing the transition to upper secondary education.

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Psychological Flexibility
• Psychological Well-being

Intervention

Behavioral:
• face-to-face support and Chatbot online support group
Behavioral: Structured web- and mobile-based intervention with Youth Compass plus program to support adolescents' psychological flexibility, well-being, and subsequently support successful transition to upper secondary education. The Youth Compass plus is a five-week online program aiming to enhance adolescents' psychological flexibility by guiding adolescents in exploring their values and setting goals and changing behaviors according to their goals (week 1), and learning acceptance, defusion and mindfulness skills (weeks 2-3) and integrating these skills into their personal and social life (weeks 4-5). The participants in this condition receive weekly online support and feedback from the eCoach built within the program. In addition, they meet and get support from their human coach (i.e., psychology student) twice in the face-to-face meetings.
• only chat-robot online support group
Behavioral: Structured web- and mobile-based intervention with Youth Compass plus program to adolescents' psychological flexibility, well-being, and subsequently support successful transition to upper secondary education. The Youth Compass plus is a five-week online program aiming to enhance adolescents' psychological flexibility by guiding adolescents in exploring their values and setting goals and changing behaviors according to their goals (week 1), and learning acceptance, defusion and mindfulness skills (weeks 2-3) and integrating these skills into their personal and social life (weeks 4-5). The participants in this condition receive weekly online support and feedback from the eCoach built within the program.
• Control group, no intervention
Behavioral: No intervention

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Finland	Department of Psychology University of Jyvaskyla	Jyvaskyla

Sponsors (2)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
University of Jyvaskyla	Academy of Finland

Country where clinical trial is conducted

Finland, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Other	learning-related expectations and behaviours	success expectations, task-focused behavior and planning; Nurmi et al., 1995	Change from baseline at 2 and 6 months after the intervention
Other	educational expectations	educational expectations	Change from baseline at 2 and 6 months after the intervention
Other	quality of close relationships	conflict and closeness in child-parent, child-teacher, and child-best relationships (Pianta)	Change from baseline at 2 and 6 months after the intervention
Other	personality	short Big Five, Gostling et al., 2003)	Change from baseline at 2 and 6 months after the intervention
Primary	psychological flexibility	Comprehensive assessment of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy processes, CompACT; Francis et al., 2016	Change from baseline at 2 and 6 months after the intervention
Primary	psychological flexibility	Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire (Gillanders et al., 2014)	Change from baseline at 2 and 6 months after the intervention
Primary	life satisfaction	Satisfaction with Life Scale, SWLS, Diener et al., 1985	Change from baseline at 2 and 6 months after the intervention
Primary	mental well-being	Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale WEMWBS; THL 2011	Change from baseline at 2 and 6 months after the intervention
Primary	stress symptoms	Perceived Stress Scale, PSS-10; Cohen et al., 1983	Change from baseline at 2 and 6 months after the intervention
Primary	anxiety symptoms	short-form of the state scale of the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, STAI; Marteau & Becker, 1992	Change from baseline at 2 and 6 months after the intervention
Primary	depressive symptoms	Depression Scale, DEPS; Salokangas et al., 1995	Change from baseline at 2 and 6 months after the intervention
Primary	Career choice preparedness	career choice self-efficacy, career-related insecurity, preparation against setbacks, Koivisto et al., 2011	Change from baseline at 2 and 6 months after the intervention
Secondary	perfectionism	The Child-Adolescent; Perfectionism Scale, CAPS; Gordon et al., 2016	Change from baseline at 2 and 6 months after the intervention
Secondary	self-compassion	Self-Compassion Scale - Short Form; Raes et al., 2011	Change from baseline at 2 and 6 months after the intervention
Secondary	prosocial aspirations	short form of the Aspirations Index, Marshall, 2019	Change from baseline at 2 and 6 months after the intervention
Secondary	academic buoyancy	short Academic buoyancy scale; Martin & Marsh, 2008	Change from baseline at 2 and 6 months after the intervention
Secondary	school well-being	school satisfaction, anti-school attitude, school-related stress, WHO	Change from baseline at 2 and 6 months after the intervention
Secondary	academic performance	grade point average	Change from baseline at 2 and 6 months after the intervention
Secondary	truancy and school absences	truancy and school absences, Finnish School Health Questionnaire	Change from baseline at 2 and 6 months after the intervention
Secondary	educational attainment, information from school registers	initiation of upper secondary education, progress in studies, changes in study field, graduation time,	2020-2025 (not possible to provide more specitic time frame)