The Military Spouse Resiliency Group (MSRG) Peer Support Program: Equipping Families For Resiliency With Tools ((EFFRT))

November 29, 2023 updated by: University of Texas at Austin

The Military Spouse Resiliency Group (MSRG) Peer Support Program: Equipping Families For Resiliency With Tools (EFFRT)

This study will adapt and test an established peer support program for military spouses that offers them significant weekly group-based support on an array of topics that affect their lives. The curriculum will be able to be used in-person through group meetings or virtually by using a web-based meeting platform. The near-term impact of this study is that scientific knowledge will be developed about how well a curriculum-based, weekly, in-person support group for military spouses is effective in improving spouses' quality of life, mental health, social support and knowledge of health conditions impacting service members.

This study will assess whether offering military spouses support for coping with their mental health and social support needs to achieve a greater quality of life, a greater sense of social support and knowledge about and access to resources to address a range of issues they may be facing throughout their spouses' military careers. By educating them about the health conditions their service members may experience and how to support their recovery and access to treatment, service members will also benefit by having more familial support for seeking treatment. Educating family members about the injuries that SMs face will help to maintain stronger family relationships and reduce family relationship stress.

Study Overview

Status

Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

This study will examine the impact of structured, evidence-based peer support group adapted to address the specific concerns of military spouses designed to increase social support, reduce depression and increase knowledge of SM health needs. Research Plan: This study will address Specific Aim 1:To adapt an existing veteran spouse peer support curriculum for active-duty spouses based on data collected from focus groups and interviews with military spouses, and Specific Aim 2: Conduct a randomized controlled trial (N = 150) to evaluate how military spouses' participation in a peer support group influences their mental health, quality of life and social support outcomes as well as improves their knowledge about psychological health problems faced by SMs and their confidence in supporting SM access to treatment. Hypothesis 1: Military spouses and significant others who participate in the Military Spouse Resiliency Group (M-SRG) program will show improved quality of life, sense of social support, self-care practices and depression symptoms.Hypothesis 2: After completing M-SRG participants will possess greater knowledge of common SM psychological health problems and greater confidence in how to support SMs' access to care.Impact: The near-term impact of this study and its products are that scientific knowledge will be developed about how well a curriculum-based, weekly, in-person support group for military spouses is effective in improving spouses' quality of life, mental health, social support and knowledge of health conditions impacting service members. The long-term impact of this study will be to offer ongoing, necessary health and social support to spouses through peer support groups. Equipping spouses with skills to address the mental health and healthcare needs of SMs will provide spouses necessary supports for their unique experiences as part of military life.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

150

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 Contact

Study Locations

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 to 65 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Participants must be married to or in a committed relationship with a service member stationed at Fort Hood;
  • Participants must have a reasonable expectation of remaining at Fort Hood for at least 4 months.
  • Participants must be willing to attend up to 10 sessions of a military spouse peer support group in person at Fort Hood.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Spouses who are separated or divorced from a service member are not eligible 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: Other
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Intervention
participants receive group-based peer support
Behavioral: Group-based peer support
Receipt of semi-structured curriculum based group peer support that addresses common concerns of military spouses
No Intervention: Waitlist
participants wait to receive peer support until pre and post assessments are complete with their matched intervention group

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Quality of Life Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire (Short Form) (Q-LES-Q-SF)
Time Frame: Change in Quality of Life Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire (Short Form) (Q-LES-Q-SF) from baseline, 2-weeks, 3 months
The Quality of Life Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire measures satisfaction and enjoyment in different areas of daily functioning.
Change in Quality of Life Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire (Short Form) (Q-LES-Q-SF) from baseline, 2-weeks, 3 months
Patient Health Questionnaire-9
Time Frame: Change in Patient Health Questionnaire-9 from baseline, 2-weeks, and 3-months
The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 measures symptoms of depression.
Change in Patient Health Questionnaire-9 from baseline, 2-weeks, and 3-months
Military Spouse Self-Care Inventory (MSSCI)
Time Frame: Change in Military Spouse Self-Care Inventory from baseline, 2-weeks, and 3-months
The Military Spouse Self-Care Inventory assesses five domains of self-care that military spouses regularly practice.
Change in Military Spouse Self-Care Inventory from baseline, 2-weeks, and 3-months
Interpersonal Support Evaluation List-12 (ISEL-12)
Time Frame: Change in Interpersonal Support Evaluation List-12 from baseline, 2-weeks, and 3-months
The Interpersonal Support Evaluation List-12 is used to measure perceived social support. It has been widely used (Donoho et al., 2017) as a short-form measure of the traditional ISEL, which measures perceived social support (Cohen et al., 1985).
Change in Interpersonal Support Evaluation List-12 from baseline, 2-weeks, and 3-months
Psychological Health Knowledge Assessment
Time Frame: Change in Psychological Health Knowledge Assessment from baseline, 2-weeks, and 3-months
Investigator-developed assessment of common psychological health concerns and available treatments commonly affecting service members
Change in Psychological Health Knowledge Assessment from baseline, 2-weeks, and 3-months
General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7)
Time Frame: Change in General Anxiety Disorder-7 from baseline, 2-weeks, and 3-months
General Anxiety Disorder-7 is a valid and reliable instrument to measure generalized anxiety (Spitzer et al., 2006). Minimum is 0 and maximum is 21 and higher scores indicate more severe anxiety.
Change in General Anxiety Disorder-7 from baseline, 2-weeks, and 3-months

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

University of Texas at Austin

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Elisa Borah, PhD, University of Texas at Austin

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 (Estimated)

February 5, 2024

Primary Completion (Estimated)

December 5, 2025

Study Completion (Estimated)

December 15, 2025

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

January 2, 2023

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 2, 2023

First Posted (Actual)

February 14, 2023

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimated)

December 1, 2023

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 29, 2023

Last Verified

November 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • STUDY00003159

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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