Journey of Life Psychosocial Support Program

February 16, 2022 updated by: Washington University School of Medicine

Journey of Life Psychosocial Support for Conflict-Affected Populations in Uganda

The proposed study evaluates the impact and implementation of the Journey of Life intervention among crisis-affected caregivers living in Western Uganda. In this quasi experimental waitlist control design, participants will be assigned to treatment or waitlist control group based on their geographic location. The intervention will be delivered in X sessions weekly. Assessments will be conducted at baseline and following the intervention period. Assessments will include mental health, functioning, social support, child protection behaviors, parenting attitudes, and experiences of intimate partner violence. The study also aims to examine implementation of the Journey of Life intervention through qualitative assessments of feasibility, acceptability, adaptation, reach, and adoption.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Aligned with the USAID HEARD (Health Evaluation and Applied Research Development) purpose to leverage global partnerships to generate, synthesize, and use evidence to improve program implementation in low and middle-income countries, the proposed study will examine the impact and implementation of the Journey of Life (JoL) intervention in a humanitarian setting. The JoL intervention aims to provide psychosocial support to adults and galvanize caregivers to develop action plans for child protection in their communities. The proposed research will involve an analysis of effect sizes for mental health, functioning, social support, child protection behaviors, parenting attitudes and behaviors, and experiences of intimate partner violence. The research also aims to interrogate implementation strategies that are useful within humanitarian contexts through qualitative key informant interviews and focus group discussions. Assessments include baseline and follow up data collection to measure effect sizes and assess implementation strategy components. The study aims are to: (1) assess the impact of JoL on child protection indicators, (2) examine the effects of JoL on behavioral health functioning (i.e. mental health, social support, and functioning)

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

1395

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Uganda
      • Bweyale, Uganda
        • TPO Uganda
      • Kiryandongo, Uganda
        • TPO Uganda

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

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Refugee living in Kiryandongo settlement
  • Over the age of 18
  • Caregiver for a child under age 18

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Anyone aged 17 and under, unless written consent from the caregiver and assent from the participant is provided
  • Anyone unable to provide consent 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: Prevention
  • Allocation: Non-Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Sequential Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Journey of Life Intervention Group
Community members (caregivers, teachers, and community leaders) will participate in group workshops for a period of 6 weeks.
Behavioral: Journey of Life
The concept underlying the JoL intervention is that caregivers and community members can support each other and their children through reflection, dialogue, and action. JoL addresses children's and adolescents' ecologies by working with caregivers, educators, and community members to understand the importance of their support in protecting children.
Other: Waitlist Control Group
The waitlist control group will not receive the intervention during the first 6 months of implementation in order to assess the effects of the intervention compared to the control group. However, following intervention completion in the experimental group, the control group will receive 6 months of the intervention.
Behavioral: Journey of Life
The concept underlying the JoL intervention is that caregivers and community members can support each other and their children through reflection, dialogue, and action. JoL addresses children's and adolescents' ecologies by working with caregivers, educators, and community members to understand the importance of their support in protecting children.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Mental health
Time Frame: 6 months
Changes in mental health symptoms according to the Kessler-6 from baseline to follow up assessments. The structure of the survey asks participants how frequently they have experienced certain symptoms in the past thirty days and presents a consistent scale of responses ranging from "1 - All of the time" to "5 - None of the time"
6 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Functioning
Time Frame: 6 months
Changes in functioning according to the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule (WHODAS) from baseline to follow up. The WHODAS uses a 12-item scale with a range of scores from 12 to 60, where higher scores indicate higher disability or loss of function.
6 months
Social support
Time Frame: 6 months
Changes in social supports according to the Medical Outcomes Study Social Supports 8-item survey from baseline to follow up. The survey is scored using an average of scores for each item and transferring them to a 0-100 score where a higher score for an individual indicates more support.
6 months
Child protection attitudes
Time Frame: 6 months
Changes in the adoption of positive child protective behaviors from baseline to follow-up assessments according to the adapted Child Protection Index (CPI). The CPI is a 12-item instrument that assesses attitudes towards child protection with a scoring range of 0-12 wherein a higher number indicates more permissible attitudes towards beating children.
6 months
Parenting behaviors
Time Frame: 6 months
Changes in the adoption of positive parenting behaviors from baseline to follow-up assessments according to the Parenting Acceptance and Rejection Questionnaire (PARQ). This 12-item subscale has a scoring range of 0-48 wherein higher scores indicate more acceptance of children.
6 months

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Washington University School of Medicine

Collaborators

United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
TPO Uganda

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)

April 19, 2021

Primary Completion (Actual)

November 30, 2021

Study Completion (Actual)

November 30, 2021

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

February 12, 2021

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 24, 2021

First Posted (Actual)

March 25, 2021

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

February 18, 2022

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 16, 2022

Last Verified

February 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 202101122

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

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.

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