Efficacy of Mountain Craft Training at Enhancing the Resilience and Physio-psychological Well-being of Children From Low-income Families

Efficacy of Mountain Craft Training at Enhancing the Resilience and Physical and Psychological Well-being of Children From Low-income Families: A Pilot Randomised Controlled Trial

It is imperative to offer adequate community resources and psychosocial support, with a particular focus on enhancing resilience for children from low-income families. This study aims to determine the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of mountain craft training in enhancing resilience and self-esteem, reducing depressive symptoms, and improving the physical health of children from low-income families.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Children; Well-being; Resilience
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Intervention; Other: Placebo

Detailed Description

It is imperative to offer adequate community resources and psychosocial support, with a particular focus on enhancing resilience for children from low-income families. This study aims to determine the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of mountain craft training in enhancing resilience and self-esteem, reducing depressive symptoms, and improving the physical health of children from low-income families. This will be a pilot RCT using a two-group pre- and post-test within-subject design. The investigators plan to recruit 40 children in the Kwai Tsing District to participate in this study via the Asbury Methodist Social Service. Participants in the intervention group will be invited to join the mountain craft training programme. The research team will work with Mountain & Stream (https://www.mtandstream.com/) to offer a tailor-made hiking training programme for Form 1 students. Participants will be invited to join a control intervention that mimics the time and attention received by participants in the intervention group but will be designed to have no specific effect on the outcome variables. The investigators hypothesise that participants who receive mountain craft training (six sessions) over 3 months will report significant improvements in: (i) resilience, (ii) self-esteem; (iii) depressive symptoms, and (iv) physical well-being compared with those in the placebo control group at the 6-month follow-up assessment.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 40
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Joyce Chung; Phone Number: 27666322; Email: okjoyce.chung@polyu.edu.hk

Study Locations

• China
  • Hong Kong, China
    • Recruiting
    • The Asbury Methodist Social Service
    • Contact: Chung; Email: okjoyce.chung@polyu.edu.hk

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

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

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Form 1 students
• able to speak Cantonese and read Chinese, and
• from low-income families (with a half-median monthly household income or the recipients of Comprehensive Social Security Assistance)

Exclusion Criteria:

• Children with identified cognitive or learning problems, chronic illness, or physical disabilities

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Other
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Intervention group; Participants in the intervention group will be invited to join the mountain craft training programme.	Other: Intervention; The training programme will consist of a 3-hour lecture. The contents of the lecture will include knowledge of mountaineering in Hong Kong, country codes and care for the environment, environmental awareness when undertaking outdoor activities, hiking skills, knowledge and choice of hiking equipment and clothing, trip planning, mountain safety, map reading, the use of a compass, mountain safety, basic first aid, methods of calling for help in an emergency and sources of weather data. After completing the lecture, participants will be required to join a 6-day hiking training programme on weekends within a 3-month period (each training will be at least 5 kilometres and the duration will be at least 4 hours).
Placebo Comparator: Placebo control group; Participants will be invited to join a control intervention that mimics the time and attention received by participants in the intervention group but will be designed to have no specific effect on the outcome variables.	Other: Placebo; Control participants will be asked to join six day-time leisure activities on weekends within a 3-month period. Leisure activities will be organised by the Asbury Methodist Social Service and will include cartoon film shows, handicraft workshops, chess games, health talks on the prevention of influenza and eating a healthy diet, and day visits to a museum and theme park. Children in the placebo control group will receive free access to leisure activities, including visits to museums and theme parks as an incentive for his/her participation.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Resilience Scale-14 (RS-14)	The RS-14 will be used to measure participants' resilience. The RS-14 measures two factors: personal competence and acceptance of self and life.24 Each item is answered on a 7-point Likert scale from 'strongly disagree' to 'strongly agree', with total scores ranging from 14 to 98. Higher scores indicate higher levels of resilience. The RS-14 has been translated into Chinese and used to measure children's resilience in a previous study.25 The psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the RS-14 have been tested, with a test-retest reliability of .84 and internal consistency (Cronbach's α) of .86.	baseline, 3-month, and 6-month

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Chinese version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale for Children (CES-DC)	Participants' depressive symptoms will be evaluated using the CES-DC, which contains 20 completely standardized items to assess depressive symptoms. All items are scored on a 4-point self-report scale ranging from 0 to 3 corresponding to their occurrence in the previous week. Total scores range from 0 to 60, with higher scores indicating more prominent symptomatology. The psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the CES-DC have been tested; the version has a high content legitimacy (content legitimacy index = 95%) and satisfactory internal consistency reliability (r = 0.82).	baseline, 3-month, and 6-month
Chinese version of Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale (RSES)	Participants' self-esteem will be evaluated using the RSES, which contains includes 10 items intended to evaluate the self-esteem of children and adolescents worldwide. Each item is scored on a 4-point Likert scale ranging from 1 to 4, with total scores ranging from 10 to 40. Higher scores demonstrate higher levels of self-esteem. The Chinese version of the RSES has recently been used in Chinese children, and has shown sufficient internal reliability (r = 0.84).	baseline, 3-month, and 6-month
The children's peak expiratory flow rate	A miniWright Standard Handheld peak flow meter will be used for measuring peak expiratory flow rate.	baseline, 3-month, and 6-month

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): November 16, 2023
• Primary Completion (Estimated): November 1, 2024
• Study Completion (Estimated): November 1, 2024

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: February 15, 2024
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 27, 2024
• First Posted (Actual): February 29, 2024

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): February 29, 2024
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 27, 2024
• Last Verified: February 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: HSEARS20221110002

Drug and device information, study documents

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