Assessment of a Drama Workshop Program for Immigrant and Refugee Adolescents

The purpose of this study is to determine whether a drama workshop program for immigrant and refugee youth is effective in reducing impairment in high school students presenting learning difficulties.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Learning Disabilities
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Theatre workshops; Other: Group tutoring program

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 464
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Canada
  • Quebec
    • Montréal, Quebec, Canada
      • École Antoine-de-St-Exupéry
    • Montréal, Quebec, Canada
      • École La Dauversière
    • Montréal, Quebec, Canada
      • École La Voie
    • Montréal, Quebec, Canada
      • École Lucien-Pagé
    • Montréal, Quebec, Canada
      • École Saint-Luc

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 12 years to 17 years (Child)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• All students who are assigned to special classes based on behavioural or learning problems in grades 7-10 in the participating schools will participate in the program and be included in the study if they and their parents consent to in the research.

Exclusion Criteria:

• More severe cases

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Theatre intervention; The theatre expression workshops will run for 12 weeks, with one 75-minute workshop per week. They will be incorporated into the regular class timetable and will be run by the two members of the intervention team who have training in theatre and psychology, and the homeroom teacher, whose level of direct involvement will increase gradually as he or she becomes familiar with the workshops.	Other: Theatre workshops; The theatre expression workshops will run for 12 weeks, with one 75-minute workshop per week. They will be incorporated into the regular class timetable and will be run by the two members of the intervention team who have training in theatre and psychology, and the homeroom teacher, whose level of direct involvement will increase gradually as he or she becomes familiar with the workshops.
Experimental: Group tutoring intervention; In each classroom assigned to the tutorship intervention, two academic resource assistants will provide weekly in-class support to students for the same length of time than the drama workshop (75 minutes weekly). Individualized student objectives on reading fluency and math will be implemented (one in math and one in reading per student).	Other: Group tutoring program; Academic in-class intervention that focuses on differentiated academic instruction and improved overall academic adjustment. In each classroom assigned to the tutorship intervention, two academic resource assistants will provide weekly in-class support to students for the same length of time than the drama workshop (75 minutes, once a week), with the teacher present in the classroom.
No Intervention: No intervention; Classes not participating neither in drama workshops nor in group tutoring activities will fill out a questionnaire as a basis for comparison.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in impairment of emotional and behavioural symptoms reported by youth	Impairment of emotional and behavioural symptoms will be assessed by the Impact Supplement of the SDQ completed by the adolescents. The SDQ is a 25-item Likert scale assessing emotional and behavioural symptoms. This questionnaire includes an impairment measure that enquires about symptoms in terms of chronicity, distress, social impairment, and burden for others.	T0: up to 6 weeks before the intervention, T1: up to 2 weeks after the intervention, T2: between 7 and 8 months after the intervention

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in emotional and behavioural symptoms	Will be assessed by the SDQ global scores (teachers and youths reports).	T0: up to 6 weeks before the intervention, T1: up to 2 weeks after the intervention, T2: between 7 and 8 months after the intervention
Change in impairment	Measured by the SDQ (teacher report).	T0: up to 6 weeks before the intervention, T1: up to 2 weeks after the intervention, T2: between 7 and 8 months after the intervention
Change in relations with peers	Will be assessed using the Adolescent Friendship Inventory (AFI) designed by Rubenstein et al. (1989). This 30-item instrument requires the adolescent to indicate to what degree, on a scale of 1 to 5, the feeling expressed by the statement corresponds to his or her personal feelings in relation to his or her network of peers.	T0: up to 6 weeks before the intervention, T1: up to 2 weeks after the intervention, T2: between 7 and 8 months after the intervention
Change in school performance	Will be assessed on the basis of the first and the last report cards of the school year (T0 and T1) and with the first report card of the subsequent year (T2). We will consider students' grades in mathematics and French.	T0: up to 6 weeks before the intervention, T1: up to 2 weeks after the intervention, T2: between 7 and 8 months after the intervention

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: McGill University Health Centre/Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Cécile Rousseau, MD, McGill University Health Center, CSSS de la Montagne

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Rousseau C, Beauregard C, Daignault K, Petrakos H, Thombs BD, Steele R, Vasiliadis HM, Hechtman L. A cluster randomized-controlled trial of a classroom-based drama workshop program to improve mental health outcomes among immigrant and refugee youth in special classes. PLoS One. 2014 Aug 15;9(8):e104704. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0104704. eCollection 2014.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: November 1, 2011
• Primary Completion (Actual): December 1, 2012

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: August 25, 2011
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 29, 2011
• First Posted (Estimate): August 31, 2011

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): March 27, 2014
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 26, 2014
• Last Verified: March 1, 2014

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Impairment; Learning difficulties; Dramatherapy; Group tutoring activities; Emotional and behavioural problems
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Nervous System Diseases; Neurologic Manifestations; Neurobehavioral Manifestations; Neurodevelopmental Disorders; Communication Disorders; Learning Disabilities
• Other Study ID Numbers: CIHR/IRSC-229984