PLAYwithHEART: PLAY With Happiness, Engagement, Acceptance, and Respect With Your Team

PLAYwithHEART: Development and Feasibility Study of a Program for the Promotion of Acceptance and Cooperation Skills for Adolescent Athletes

This investigation aims to apply and test the feasibility of a structured Program for young athletes. PLAYwithHEART is a program for promoting acceptance and cooperation skills in adolescent athletes. This group application program comprises eight weekly sessions and aims to decrease levels of sport anxiety, and increase the psychological quality of life of young athletes, by promoting skills inherent to an affiliation mentality (mindfulness, acceptance, and compassion), as an alternative to a social ranking mentality (based on maladaptive processes, such as shame and self-criticism), to deal with the challenges and demands of the sport context.

Study Overview

• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Conditions: Athletes; Adolescents
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: PLAYwithHEART Programme for adolescent athletes

Detailed Description

The sample will include young athletes of different sports with ages ranged 12 to 18 years old. The principal investigator will recruit participants through contact with different sports clubs in Portugal. Athletes who demonstrate interest will go through a Screening interview (previously authorized by your legal guardian) by a licensed psychologist that aims explain the structure and arms of the investigation, to collect demographic data, and whether the athlete meets the inclusion criteria for the study. Athletes who meet the inclusion criteria and demonstrate interest in participating in the study, will sign an informed consent.

All ethical requirements for research with humans are guaranteed. Afterwards, participants will be allocated in two groups (experimental and control group). Additionally, the experimental group will enroll in the PLAYwithHEART programme, also provided by a licensed psychologist and a co-therapist.

Both groups will concurrently complete a protocol of self-report measures (to measure: a) psychological processes; b) quality of life and sports anxiety. These assessments will occur in three different times: before the start of the PLAYwithHEART programme (M0), after the final session of the programme (M1), and 6 months after that (M2).

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 50
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Portugal
  • Coimbra, Portugal
    • Different sports clubs in Portugal

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 12 years to 18 years (Child, Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• adolescent competitive athletes
• presentation of the informed consent signed by the participant and respetive legal guardian
• availability to participate in the 8 sessions of the PLAYwithHEART Programme
• inexistence of cognitive difficulties that interfere in completing self-response measures
• not being under psychological / psychiatric appointments

Exclusion Criteria:

• no presentation of the informed consent signed by the participant and respetive legal guardian
• unavailability to participate in the 8 sessions of the PLAYwithHEART Programme
• existence of cognitive difficulties that interfere in completing self-response measures
• being under psychological / psychiatric appointments

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Experimental; PLAYwithHEART Programme is a manualized mindfulness, acceptance, and compassionate-based group intervention for adolescent competitive athletes. It included 8 weekly group sessions, 45 minutes each, run in small groups (ranging from 8 to 12 participants). Participants of this group complete also self-report measures.	Behavioral: PLAYwithHEART Programme for adolescent athletes; PLAYwithHEART programme for adolescent athletes is an intervention programme based on Mindfulness, Acceptance, and Compassion for adolescent athletes
No Intervention: Control; Participants of control group do not receive the intervention Programme (PLAYwithHEART), nor any other program, and only complete self-report measures.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Changes in Quality of Life	Measured by the The KIDSCREEN-10 quality of life measure for children and adolescents - higher levels mean a better outcome	From baseline to 6-months follow-up
Changes in competitive anxiety	Measured by the Sport Anxiety Scale (SAS-2) - lower levels mean a better outcome	From baseline to 6-months follow-up

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Changes in Mindfulness	Measured by the Children´s Acceptance and Mindfulness Measure (CAMM) - higher levels mean a better outcome	From baseline to 6-months follow-up
Changes in Self-compassion	Measured by the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS-A) - higher levels mean a better outcome	From baseline to 6-months follow-up
Changes in shame	Measured by the External and Internal Shame Scale for adolescents (EISS-A). Lower scores mean a better outcome	From baseline to 6-months follow-up
Changes in self-criticism	Measured by the Forms of self-criticizing/attacking and self-reassuring scale (FSCRS-A) - lower scores in self-criticising mean a better outcome	From baseline to 6-months follow-up
Changes in Psychological Inflexibility	Measured by the Avoidance and Fusion Questionnaire for Youth (AFQ-Y) - lower levels mean a better outcome	From baseline to 6-months follow-up

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Coimbra
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Sara Oliveira, MS, University of Coimbra

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): February 1, 2020
• Primary Completion (Estimated): August 1, 2024
• Study Completion (Estimated): August 1, 2024

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: April 14, 2021
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 19, 2021
• First Posted (Actual): April 20, 2021

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): March 21, 2024
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 19, 2024
• Last Verified: March 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: CINEICC; SFRH/BD/143410/2019 (Other Grant/Funding Number: Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia)

Drug and device information, study documents

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