The Effectiveness of the Mobile-based Youth COMPASS Program to Promote Adolescent Well-being and Life-control (YouthCOMPASS)

The Effectiveness of the Novel Web- and Mobile-based Acceptance- and Commitment Therapy Program Youth COMPASS to Promote Adolescent Well-being and Life-control

The aim of this randomized control trial is to examine effectiveness of individually tailored web- and mobile-based Acceptance- and Commitment Therapy interventions to promote adolescents' well-being and life-control and subsequently support their successful transition from basic education to upper secondary education. Our additional aim is to examine to what extent the effectiveness of the intervention varies according to intervention intensity and according to risk for school failure. The five-week structured intervention is delivered using the novel web-and mobile-based program Youth COMPASS following the principles of the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). The Internet context is assumed to be particularly motivating for youth who enjoy spending time online using different social media. Internet-based interventions have several advantages; they can include more information and treatment components than traditionally delivered treatments and that intervention programs are accessible at any time and at any place. Another unique aspect of the Youth COMPASS is the fact that it is individually-tailored. Each participant have an individually assigned online coach who provides support and encouragement, reminds about Youth COMPASS, sends individualized feedback, and recommends different exercises. The study hypothetizes that the Youth COMPASS is more effective than school counseling as usual. More specifically, the Youth COMPASS is expected to be more effective when it is combined with face-to-face support than when support and feedback are provided only via the Internet. Also, the Youth COMPASS with no face-to-face support (online only) is expected to be more effective than receiving only regular school counseling. Finally, the Youth COMPASS is expected to be more effective for students at risk for school failure than for students without risk for school failure, especially when at risk-adolescents receive more intensive support (i.e., both online and face-to-face support).

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Well-being
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Experimental: face-to-face and online support group:; Behavioral: Experimental: only online support group:; Behavioral: Control

Detailed Description

The aim of this randomized control trial is to examine effectiveness of individually tailored web- and mobile-based Acceptance- and Commitment Therapy interventions to promote adolescents' well-being and life-control and subsequently support their successful transition from basic education to upper secondary education. Our additional aim is to examine to what extent the effectiveness of the intervention varies according to intervention intensity and according to risk for school failure. The five-week structured intervention is delivered using the novel web-and mobile-based program Youth COMPASS following the principles of the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). The Internet context is assumed to be particularly motivating for youth who enjoy spending time online using different social media. Internet-based interventions have several advantages; they can include more information and treatment components than traditionally delivered treatments and that intervention programs are accessible at any time and at any place. Another unique aspect of the Youth COMPASS is the fact that it is individually-tailored. Each participant have an individually assigned online coach who provides support and encouragement, reminds about Youth COMPASS, sends individualized feedback, and recommends different exercises. The study hypothetizes that the Youth COMPASS is more effective than school counseling as usual. More specifically, the Youth COMPASS is expected to be more effective when it is combined with face-to-face support than when support and feedback are provided only via the Internet. Also, the Youth COMPASS with no face-to-face support (online only) is expected to be more effective than receiving only regular school counseling. Finally, the Youth COMPASS is expected to be more effective for students at risk for school failure than for students without risk for school failure, especially when at risk-adolescents receive more intensive support (i.e., both online and face-to-face support). The participants of the effectiveness study of the Youth COMPASS are selected from the participants of the broader longitudinal STAIRWAY (TIKAPUU in Finnish) - From Primary School to Secondary School study, which follows a community sample of Finnish adolescents (n~850) across critical educational transitions. The overall aim of the STAIRWAY project is to broaden our understanding of the individual- and environment-related factors that promote learning, well-being and successful educational transitions.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 249
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Finland
  • Jyväskylä, Finland, 40014
    • Department of Psychology, UNiversity of Jyvaskyla

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 14 years to 16 years (Child)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Adolescents (n = 120) who have risk for school failure (learning difficulties or low grade point average without learning difficulties)
• Randomly chosen adolescents (n=120) from the same classrooms who have no risk for school failure

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Face-to-face and online support group; Behavioral: Structured web- and mobile-based intervention with Youth COMPASS program to support adolescents' well-being, career preparation and life-control and subsequently support successful transition to upper secondary education. The Youth COMPASS is the five-week online program according to principles of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy 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 life (weeks 4-5). The participants in this condition receive weekly online support and feedback from their individually assigned coach. In addition, they meet their coach twice in the face-to-face meetings. The aim of the meetings is to increase adolescents' internal motivation and thereby participation in the program.	Behavioral: Experimental: face-to-face and online support group: 5-week intervention according to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy principles with the web-and mobile-based Youth COMPASS program, face-to-face support (2 meetings) and weekly online mobile support and feedback from the individually assigned coach (one third of the participants is randomly assigned to this group)
Experimental: Only online support group; Behavioral: web- and mobile-based intervention with Youth COMPASS program to support adolescents' well-being, career preparation and life-control and subsequently support successful transition to upper secondary education. The Youth COMPASS is a five-week online program according to principles of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy 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 life (weeks 4-5). The participants in this condition receive weekly online support and feedback from their individually assigned coach.	Behavioral: Experimental: only online support group: 5-week intervention according to ACT principles with the web-and mobile-based Youth COMPASS program, no face-to-face support, weekly mobile online support and feedback from the individually assigned coach (one third of the participants is randomly assigned to this group)
Experimental: Control group; Behavioral: No intervention, school counseling as usual	Behavioral: Control; Control group, no intervention, school counseling as usual. (one third of the participants is randomly assigned to this group)

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Life satisfaction (Diener et al., 1985)	Study has five timepoints when same questionnaires are administered to assess possible changes in the outcome measures.	Change from baseline at 2, 6, 12 and 18 months after the intervention.
Self-esteem (Rosenberg, 1965),	Study has five timepoints when same questionnaires are administered to assess possible changes in the outcome measures.	Change from baseline at 2, 6, 12 and 18 months after the intervention.
Depressive symptoms (Salokangas et al., 1995)	Study has five timepoints when same questionnaires are administered to assess possible changes in the outcome measures.	Change from baseline at 2, 6, 12 and 18 months after the intervention.
Stress (Elo et al., 2003)	Study has five timepoints when same questionnaires are administered to assess possible changes in the outcome measures.	Change from baseline at 2, 6, 12 and 18 months after the intervention.
Difficulties and Strenghts questionnaire (SDQ, Goodman et al. 1997) measuring emotional symptoms, hyperactivity, conduct problems and prosociality	Study has five timepoints when same questionnaires are administered to assess possible changes in the outcome measures.	Change from baseline at 2, 6, 12 and 18 months after the intervention.
Well-being in school (World Health Organization)	Study has five timepoints when same questionnaires are administered to assess possible changes in the outcome measures.	Change from baseline at 2, 6, 12 and 18 months after the intervention.
Career choice preparedness (Koivisto et al., 2011)	Study has five timepoints when same questionnaires are administered to assess possible changes in the outcome measures.	Change from baseline at 2, 6, 12 and 18 months after the intervention.
Educational expectations	Study has five timepoints when same questionnaires are administered to assess possible changes in the outcome measures.	Change from baseline at 2, 6, 12 and 18 months after the intervention.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Psychological flexibility (Greco et al., 2008)	Study has five timepoints when same questionnaires are administered to assess possible changes in the outcome measures.	Change from baseline at 2, 6, 12 and 18 months after the intervention.
Mindfulness skills (Ciarrochi et al., 2011)	Study has five timepoints when same questionnaires are administered to assess possible changes in the outcome measures.	Change from baseline at 2, 6, 12 and 18 months after the intervention.
Identity formation (DIDS; Luyckx et al., 2008; see also Marttinen et al., 2016)	In addition to self-reports, also school register information is collected regarding academic performance, school absences and progress in studies.	Change from baseline at 2, 6, 12 and 18 months after the intervention
Truancy	Study has five timepoints when same questionnaires are administered to assess possible changes in the outcome measures.	Change from baseline at 2, 6, 12 and 18 months after the intervention.
School grades	In addition to self-reports, also school register information is collected.	Four years from the baseline.
Initiation of upper secondary education	In addition to self-reports, also school register information is collected.	Four years from the baseline.
Progress in upper secondary studies	In addition to self-reports, also school register information is collected.	Four years from the baseline.
Changes in study field in upper secondary education	In addition to self-reports, also school register information is collected.	Four years from the baseline.
Staying in vs. dropping out of education	In addition to self-reports, also school register information is collected.	Four years from the baseline.
Graduation time	In addition to self-reports, also school register information is collected.	Four years from the baseline.

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Achievement strategies (Nurmi et al., 1995)	Study has five timepoints when same questionnaires are administered to assess possible changes in the outcome measures.	Change from baseline at 2, 6, 12 and 18 months after the intervention.
Academic buoyancy (Martin & Marsh, 2008)	Study has five timepoints when same questionnaires are administered to assess possible changes in the outcome measures.	Change from baseline at 2, 6, 12 and 18 months after the intervention.
Recovery from school work (see also Winwood et al., 2005)	Study has five timepoints when same questionnaires are administered to assess possible changes in the outcome measures.	Change from baseline at 2, 6, 12 and 18 months after the intervention.
Child-Parent relationship (Pianta, 1992)	Study has five timepoints when same questionnaires are administered to assess possible changes in the outcome measures.	Change from baseline at 2, 6, 12 and 18 months after the intervention.
Student-Teacher relationship (Pianta, 2001)	Study has five timepoints when same questionnaires are administered to assess possible changes in the outcome measures.	Change from baseline at 2, 6, 12 and 18 months after the intervention.
Best Friend-Student (Bukowski et al., 1994) relationship	Study has five timepoints when same questionnaires are administered to assess possible changes in the outcome measures.	Change from baseline at 2, 6, 12 and 18 months after the intervention.
Temperament (Rothbart & Ellis, 2001)	Study has five timepoints when same questionnaires are administered to assess possible changes in the outcome measures.	Change from baseline at 2, 6, 12 and 18 months after the intervention.
Substance use (Rimpelä et al., 2003)	Study has five timepoints when same questionnaires are administered to assess possible changes in the outcome measures.	Change from baseline at 2, 6, 12 and 18 months after the intervention.
Loneliness (World Health Organization)	Study has five timepoints when same questionnaires are administered to assess possible changes in the outcome measures.	Change from baseline at 2, 6, 12 and 18 months after the intervention.
Health behaviors (World Health Organization)	Study has five timepoints when same questionnaires are administered to assess possible changes in the outcome measures.	Change from baseline at 2, 6, 12 and 18 months after the intervention.
Dating	Study has five timepoints when same questionnaires are administered to assess possible changes in the outcome measures.	Change from baseline at 2, 6, 12 and 18 months after the intervention.
Having hobbies	Study has five timepoints when same questionnaires are administered to assess possible changes in the outcome measures.	Change from baseline at 2, 6, 12 and 18 months after the intervention.

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Jyvaskyla
• Collaborators: the Finnish Cultural Foundation, Central Finland Regional Fund
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Noona Kiuru, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Jyväskylä, Finland

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): September 21, 2017
• Primary Completion (Actual): December 15, 2017
• Study Completion (Actual): December 31, 2019

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: September 1, 2017
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 4, 2017
• First Posted (Actual): September 7, 2017

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): April 2, 2020
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 1, 2020
• Last Verified: April 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Adolescents; Psychological well-being; Acceptance and Commitment therapy; Web- and mobile-based intervention; Career preparation; Successful educational transitions; Lifecontrol; Learning difficulties; Psychological flexibility and mindfulness skills
• Other Study ID Numbers: 21000039071

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES

IPD Plan Description

Other researchers are encouraged to use the data; however, it requires a research plan and the permission of the research team. Also, at least one of the team members, who know the data well, should be a co-author in all the articles that are written from the data.

After 10 years of the data collection, those parts of the data that are not too sensitive (e.g., part of the questionnaire data), will be prepared in collaboration with a Finnish Social Science data Archive in a format that is easily accessible for other researchers. However, using data requires a research plan and the permission of the research team. Also, at least one of the team members, who know the data well, should be a co-author in all the articles that are written from the data.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No