Leadership, Engagement, and Youth Action Program With Mindfulness (LEAP)

Can A Youth Leadership and Mindfulness Program Support Well-being in Adolescence?

The current study tests the feasibility and effectiveness of a youth intervention designed to provide meaningful leadership opportunities through the acquisition of leadership skills as well as mindfulness practice, LEAP: Leadership, Engagement, and youth Action Program with Mindfulness.

The goal of our proposal is to determine whether the Leadership, Engagement, and youth Action Program with Mindfulness (LEAP) curriculum, which was developed with youth, is a feasible and effective intervention for fostering leadership and well-being. We seek to understand whether LEAP can support well-being for youth as a strategy to increase youth mental, emotional, and behavioral (MEB) health.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Mental Health Wellness 1; Adolescent Behavior
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Leadership, Engagement, and youth Action Program with Mindfulness; Behavioral: EnvisionIT

Detailed Description

The LEAP study will determine whether a 14-session program designed to provide leadership and mindfulness skills to youth is an effective and feasible intervention. The curriculum consists of 14 two-hour sessions delivered after school. The comparison group will take part in EnvisionIT, a college and career readiness program designed for students in grades 6 through 12. EnvisionIT aims to prepare students with essential skills including digital literacy, and college and career readiness. The comparison group will also have 14 two-hour group sessions. Both LEAP and EnvisionIT will be delivered by trained facilitators. All participants in LEAP and EnvisionIT will be assessed at two time points assessing program outcomes; facilitators will also complete interviews post-intervention and provide feedback on data fidelity and acceptability following each session. This record reports on the UG3 pilot phase and will be amended for a UH3 phase.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 49
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Illinois
    • Chicago, Illinois, United States, 60608
      • University of Illinois Chicago
  • Massachusetts
    • Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 02119
      • METCO

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Adolescents ages 14-18 in grades 9-12 enrolled in collaborating sites, either in Massachusetts or Illinois.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Adolescents who are not available to commit to the intervention schedule.
• Adolescents who are not in grades 9-12.
• Parents/guardians with preferred language other than English or Spanish.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: EnvisionIT; EnvisionIT is a college and career-readiness program designed for students in grades 6-12. The EnvisionIT program will be delivered over 14 sessions, and focus on skills and career/college readiness.	Behavioral: EnvisionIT; Participants in this arm will receive 14 sessions of EnvisionIT training, focused on preparing students with essential skills including digital literacy through competency in information technology, financial literacy, English language arts skills, and college and career readiness. All sessions will be delivered by facilitators trained in EnvisionIT.
Experimental: Leadership, Engagement, and youth Action Program with Mindfulness; The Leadership, Engagement, and youth Action Program with Mindfulness intervention (LEAP) consists of 14 sessions focused on youth leadership and mindfulness.	Behavioral: Leadership, Engagement, and youth Action Program with Mindfulness; The Leadership, Engagement, and youth Action Program with Mindfulness intervention (LEAP) was designed and co-created with youth to improve youth well-being by enhancing leadership opportunities and by developing mindfulness in day-to-day life. LEAP seeks to foster these improvements in youth as a strategy to increase mental, emotional, and behavioral health. Youth voice is incorporated into the intervention, with facilitators leading the first 7 sessions, and youth leading the remainder.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Mental Health Continuum - Short Form	14-item, 6-point scale that measures emotional, social, and psychological wellbeing through frequency of experiencing each symptom of positive mental health. The scale range is 0-70, higher scores indicate better mental health.	Baseline, 2-3 months
Engagement, Perseverance, Optimism, Connectedness, and Happiness (EPOCH) measure of adolescent wellbeing	20-item, 5-point scale measuring five positive characteristics that support higher levels of wellbeing: Engagement, Perseverance, Optimism, Connectedness, and Happiness. The scale range is 1-5, higher scores indicate better wellbeing.	Baseline, 2-3 months
Social Emotional Health Survey: Belief in Self-Domain	9 item, 4-point measure of core psychological assets, measuring self-efficacy, self-awareness, and persistence. The scale range is 9-36, higher scores indicate better social emotional health.	Baseline, 2-3 months
Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire	25 item multiple choice questionnaire that measures internalizing and externalizing problems and prosocial behavior (emotional, conduct, hyperactivity-inattention, peer, prosocial). The scale range is 0-40, higher scores indicate worse difficulties.	Baseline, 2-3 months
Self-Rated Health	12 item 5-point survey measuring general health, asking about overall health self-rating, ability to do daily activities, energy levels, and physical and emotional limitations. The scale range is 0-100, higher scores indicate better health.	Baseline, 2-3 months
Student Career Construction Inventory	An 18 item, 4-point scale measuring ability to crystallize vocational self-concepts, explore information gathering about occupations, and preparing to implement that choice. The scale range is 1-5, higher scores indicate better career outcomes.	Baseline, 2-3 months
Vocational Skills Self-Efficacy	A 37 item, 5-point scale that measures vocational competency. The scale range is 1-5, higher scores indicate better vocational skills self-efficacy.	Baseline, 2-3 months
Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Literacy Pretest-Posttest	A 35 item multiple choice questionnaire that measures understanding of tools/mechanics of the internet, research processes, and application to career research. The scale range is 0-29, higher scores indicate better ICT literacy.	Baseline, 2-3 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Boston University Charles River Campus
• Collaborators: Massachusetts General Hospital; University of Illinois at Chicago; Utah State University
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Jennifer G Green, PhD, Boston University; Principal Investigator: Mario Cruz-Gonzalez, PhD, Massachusetts General Hospital

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): December 15, 2023
• Primary Completion (Actual): May 1, 2024
• Study Completion (Actual): May 1, 2024

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: January 5, 2024
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 17, 2024
• First Posted (Actual): January 26, 2024

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): August 6, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 1, 2025
• Last Verified: August 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: mindfulness; youth leadership; youth wellbeing
• Other Study ID Numbers: 1UG3AT012530-01 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO
• IPD Plan Description: Data for the study UG3 Phase are for pilot and feasibility purposes and will not be shared with other researchers.

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