Impact of Peer Mentors on Individuals Transitioning to Adult Eating Disorder Treatment (TAY-Mentors)

March 17, 2026 updated by: Aaron Keshen, Nova Scotia Health Authority

Examining the Impact of Peer Mentors on Individuals Transitioning to Adult Eating Disorder Treatment: A Feasibility Study

Participants will be males and females aged 16-24 with an eating disorder (ED) diagnosis who are transitioning to adult-oriented ED treatment in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, or Prince Edward Island. Youth participants will be recruited from community-based clinics, hospital programs, and private practices where ED treatment is delivered. Youth who are interested in participating and provide written consent will be invited to take part in a screening meeting to determine eligibility to participate. Eligible participants will be paired with a peer mentor for a 3-6 month intervention to guide them through the transition to adult-oriented ED treatment. Participants will be asked to complete questionnaire packages before beginning the intervention, after completing the intervention, and 12 months after beginning the intervention. Some youth participants, as well as some of their carers and the peer mentors, will be asked to participate in one-on-one interviews about their experiences with transitions in ED care and the peer mentor intervention. The investigators are conducting this study to determine whether the use of peer mentors is an effective and acceptable means of transition support for youth with EDs. The investigators are also interested in better understanding the experiences of carers and peer mentors who are supporting youth with EDs during their transition in care.

Study Overview

Status

Active, not recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

This feasibility study will incorporate quantitative and qualitative methods and utilizes an uncontrolled pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design to examine the effectiveness and acceptability of a peer mentor delivered intervention that aims to improve transitions to adult-oriented care for patients with eating disorders (EDs) aged 16-24.

Youth will be recruited from community-based clinics, hospital programs, and private practices where youth- or adult-oriented ED treatment is delivered across Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. Clinicians in these settings will be asked to identify potentially eligible youth who will be transitioning to adult-oriented ED care. Potential participants who are interested in participating and provide written consent will meet with a research team member for a screening meeting to determine their eligibility status. Screening will involve the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5 Research Version (SCID-5-RV) and the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS). All screening information will be reviewed by the PI (Dr. Keshen). Participants who are not interested in the study or who fail to meet the eligibility criteria will be given standard options available to treatment age youth.

Youth participants who are found eligible will be connected with a trained peer mentor for a 3-6 month transition intervention. Youth and their peer mentor will meet weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly depending on the phase of the intervention and the needs of the youth. The intervention is divided into 3 phases: phase 1 includes building a sense of trust, rapport, and motivation, as well as the identification of goals, strengths, challenges and barriers related to transition; phase 2 focuses on self-reflection, problem-solving, and transition planning; and phase 3 involves the gradual tapering off and conclusion of the peer mentor relationship.

Youth participants will be asked to complete questionnaire packages before beginning the intervention, after completing the intervention, and 12 months after beginning the intervention. Some youth will also be asked to participate in one-on-one interviews with a research team member at these same time-points. Some youth participants will be asked if they would like to involve a carer in the study, as well. Carers will be invited to participate in a one-on-one interview with a research team member 12 months after the youth they are caring for began the intervention. Peer mentors will be invited to participate in one-on-one interviews at the end of the study. The aim of the interviews is to understand experiences with eating disorder treatment, transitions in care, and the peer mentor intervention.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

64

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

  • Canada
    • Nova Scotia
      • Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, B3H 2E2
        • Abbie J Lane Memorial Building - QEII

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

16 years to 24 years (Child, Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

TAY Inclusion Criteria:

  • Meets one of the following criteria:

    • 'Aging out' of youth-oriented ED treatment at 19 years-old and unlikely to achieve remission prior to leaving the program (as determined by their clinician[s])
    • Have been deemed incompatible with traditional youth-oriented ED treatment (based on established youth-oriented ED treatment criteria, and determined by their clinician[s])
    • Have requested and/or had a carer request a transition to adult-oriented ED treatment
    • Have been self-referred or referred to adult ED treatment by a clinician (even if they have not been involved in youth-oriented ED treatment)
  • Aged 16-24 years old
  • Meets criteria for DSM-5 diagnosis of an ED, as confirmed by the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5 Research Version (SCID-5-RV)
  • Virtually signed informed consent form

TAY Exclusion Criteria:

  • Insufficient knowledge of English
  • Moderate to high suicide risk rating at screening as assessed by the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale (CSSRS; at the discretion of the PI)

Carer Inclusion Criteria:

  • Identified by a TAY participant as a carer
  • Aged 18 or older
  • Virtually signed informed consent form

Carer Exclusion Criteria:

• Insufficient knowledge of English

PM Inclusion Criteria:

  • Certified PM with EDNS
  • Providing PM support to TAY study participants
  • Virtually signed informed consent form

PM Exclusion Criteria:

• Insufficient knowledge of English

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: Supportive Care
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: TAY receiving peer mentor intervention
Transition age youth with EDs (n=50) will receive a peer mentor delivered transition intervention
Behavioral: Peer mentor intervention
Peer mentor delivered intervention for transitions to adult-oriented treatment for eating disorders

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in Autonomous Motivation
Time Frame: Baseline, 3-6 months, 12 months
This will be measured at Baseline, Post-Intervention, and 12-Month Follow-Up, using The Treatment Self-Regulation Questionnaire (TSRQ; Levesque et al., 2007). The TSRQ is a reliable and valid self-report questionnaire that assesses the type of motivation patients use (autonomous or external/controlled) when engaging in a health behaviour or treatment. The TSRQ consists of 12 questions with scores ranging from 1 ("strongly disagree") to 7 ("strongly agree"). The TSRQ can be modified to measure specific health care outcomes (e.g., ED related). Further, the TSRQ has previously been used to detect changes in autonomous motivation before and after health-related interventions, including over six-month timeframes (e.g., Stamp et al., 2016; Knittle et al., 2015). A recent scoping review determined that there are no validated quantitative measures for specifically evaluating mental health related transition interventions for TAY (Cleverly et al., 2018).
Baseline, 3-6 months, 12 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Patient acceptability
Time Frame: Throughout study completion, 12 months
This will be measured at Baseline, Post-Intervention, and 12-Month Follow-Up, using the Health Care Climate Questionnaire (HCCQ; Williams, et al., 1996) at Baseline, Post-Intervention, and 12-Month Follow-Up. The HCCQ measures the extent to which patients feel that providers take full account of their perspective, offer choice and information, encourage self-initiation, provide rationale, and accept patient decisions. The HCCQ is a companion scale to the TSRQ, and has been positively associated with autonomous motivation and treatment adherence (Williams et al., 2006; Chan et al., 2009). The HCCQ is a valid and reliable 6-item self-report questionnaire with scores ranging from 1 ("strongly disagree") to 7 ("strongly agree").
Throughout study completion, 12 months
Completed Transitions
Time Frame: 12 months
Engagement in adult-oriented service could include: a) one session (or more) of individual psychotherapy aimed at treating the ED (as determined by the PI); b) an admission into AEDP (i.e., group-based Day Program or Inpatient); and c) the youth is on the wait-list to start adult treatment. Initiation of adult services can be through referral from any clinician or self-referral. Although our measurement of a completed transition is a dichotomous variable, we will also collect exploratory data to examine the degree of service uptake in the adult-oriented treatment (low, medium, and high use as defined by McClelland et al., 2020). This will allow us to explore not only whether the youth transitioned or not, but also to what degree they engaged in an adult service after the transition.
12 months

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in eating disorder symptomatology
Time Frame: Baseline, 3-6 months, 12 months
This will be measured at Baseline, Post-Intervention, and 12-Month Follow-Up, using the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q; Fairburn & Beglin, 1994), a validated and reliable 28-item self-report questionnaire.
Baseline, 3-6 months, 12 months
Change in clinical impairment
Time Frame: Baseline, 3-6 months, 12 months
This will be measured at Baseline, Post-Intervention, and 12-Month Follow-Up, using the Clinical Impairment Assessment (CIA; Bohn & Fairburn, 2008), which is a reliable and validated 16-item self-report questionnaire that measures functional impairment over the last 28 days. Higher scores on the CIA indicate more impairment.
Baseline, 3-6 months, 12 months
Change in feelings of competence about participating in eating disorder treatment
Time Frame: Baseline, 3-6 months, 12 months
This will be measured at Baseline, Post-Intervention, and 12-Month Follow-Up using the Perceived Competence Scale (PCS; Williams et al., 1995), a companion scale in a questionnaire package that includes the TSRQ. The PCS is a valid and reliable tool that evaluates feelings of competence about participating in a health behaviour or treatment. The PCS is a 4-item self-report questionnaire with scores ranging from 1 ("not at all true") to 7 ("very true").
Baseline, 3-6 months, 12 months

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Nova Scotia Health Authority

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Aaron K Keshen, Nova Scotia Health Authority

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)

March 28, 2023

Primary Completion (Estimated)

February 5, 2027

Study Completion (Estimated)

March 1, 2027

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

September 9, 2022

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 13, 2022

First Posted (Actual)

September 16, 2022

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

March 19, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 17, 2026

Last Verified

June 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 1028566

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

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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