Psycho-social Support on Mental Health and Hope of Adolescents Affected by Earthquake in Nepal

December 28, 2017 updated by: Rolina Dhital, Tokyo University

Effect of Psycho-social Support Training by School Teachers on Improving Mental Health and Hope of School Going Adolescents in Earthquake Affected Districts in Nepal

Adolescents are prone to mental health problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression which could become worse in the aftermath of disasters. However, hope can help adolescents cope with the challenges better. For resource poor disaster prone settings, school teachers can provide timely psycho-social support that could improve mental health and hope among adolescents.

Nepal is a disaster prone country that faced a devastating earthquake in 2015 that claimed thousands of lives and left many homeless which could have affected the mental health of adolescents.This study was conducted in schools of Dhading, a severely earthquake affected district and schools of Myagdi, a least affected district by earthquake in Nepal. The intervention focused on training school teachers on psycho-social support for adolescents.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Adolescents are prone to mental health problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression which could become worse in the aftermath of disasters. However, some adolescents can have better hope that helps them to cope with the challenges following adverse events such as earthquake.

Nepal is a low income and disaster prone country that ranks 11th for earthquake risks globally. In April 2015, the country faced a devastating earthquake of 7.8 Magnitude that killed thousands of people. Fourteen out of seventy five districts in Nepal were declared as severely affected districts.

However, the adolescents may not have received enough psychosocial support after the earthquake. The damage caused by earthquake was further worsened by the political instability in the country leading to delay in reconstruction work in earthquake-affected areas. Difficult circumstances following the earthquake could have affected the mental of adolescents negatively. However, the evidence on mental health status of adolescents following massive disaster such as earthquake remains inadequate.

For resource poor and disaster prone settings such as Nepal, school teachers can provide timely psychosocial support that could improve mental health and hope among adolescents. School based teacher mediated interventions could be more sustainable and feasible in the complex scenario of post-disaster settings. However, evidence on teacher mediated interventions in low resource disaster settings remain inadequate.

The objectives of this study were to assess mental health and level of hope among the adolescents in selected districts and examine the effect of school teachers' training on psychosocial support on mental health and hope among the adolescents.

The intervention for this study was schoolteachers' training on psycho-social support. A clinical psychologist provided 2-day training on psycho-social support for 22 schoolteachers (2 teachers from each intervention school). The training guidelines were adapted from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) on psycho-social support for education in emergencies. The training provided basic skills to the schoolteachers so that they will be able to provide psycho-social support for children affected. The lesson learned from the training was intended to be applied by the school teachers in their everyday regular school activities. A follow up study was conducted at 6 months follow up among the adolescents to assess the change in their mental health status and hope.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

1912

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

10 years to 17 years (Child)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Adolescents studying in grade 6, 7 and 8 of the selected schools at the time of data collection
  • Adolescents with written consent from themselves and their guardian

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Adolescent who refused to participate

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Intervention
Two teachers from each of the schools included in this arm received training on providing psycho-social support to their students to be implemented in their regular routine school activities
Behavioral: Psychosocial support training for school teachers
The intervention for this study was schoolteachers' training on psychosocial support.A clinical psychologist provided 2-day training (a total of 16 hours) training on psychosocial support for the schoolteachers
No Intervention: Control
The teachers from the schools in this arm did not receive training on psycho-social support

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change from baseline post traumatic stress symptoms at 6 months
Time Frame: baseline and 6 month follow up
Post traumatic stress disorder symptoms among adolescents using Child post traumatic symptom scale symptom scale which is a 17 item scale. The minimum score is 0 and maximum score is 52. Higher score indicates higher symptoms for PTSD.
baseline and 6 month follow up
Change from baseline depression symptoms at 6 months
Time Frame: baseline and 6 month follow up
Depression symptoms among adolescents using depression self rating scale which is an 18 item scale. The minimum score is 0 and maximum score is 36. Higher scores indicate higher symptoms for depression.
baseline and 6 month follow up
Change from baseline hope at 6 months
Time Frame: baseline and 6 month follow up
Hope as an antecedent of resilience and positive aspect of mental health using Children's Hope scale which is a 6 item scale. The minimum score is 0 and maximum score is 1 and maximum score is 36. The higher score indicate higher hope.
baseline and 6 month follow up

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Tokyo University

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Rolina Dhital, MHSc, Tokyo University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

June 1, 2016

Primary Completion (Actual)

March 1, 2017

Study Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2017

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

December 21, 2017

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 28, 2017

First Posted (Actual)

December 29, 2017

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

December 29, 2017

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 28, 2017

Last Verified

December 1, 2017

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • TUniversity

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

Clinical Trials on Mental Health Issue (E.G., Depression, Psychosis, Personality Disorder, Substance Abuse)

Clinical Trials on Psychosocial support training for school teachers

Search Similar Trials

Sponsors and Collaborators

Medical Conditions

Drug Interventions

CROs by country

CROs in Switzerland

Conditions

Rare Diseases

Drug Interventions

Dietary Supplements

Sponsor/Collaborators

Locations

3
Subscribe