Future Leaders Program: Testing a Youth Leadership, Engagement, and Mindfulness Program (FLP)

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 this project 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. The investigators seek to understand whether LEAP can support wellbeing for youth as a strategy to increase youth mental, emotional, and behavioral (MEB) health.

Study Overview

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

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 four time points; facilitators will also complete interviews post-intervention and provide feedback on data fidelity and acceptability following each session. This record reports on the UH3 phase of the grant.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 504
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Jennifer Greif Green, PhD; Phone Number: 617-353-3253; Email: jggreen@bu.edu
• Study Contact Backup: Name: Mario Cruz-Gonzalez, PhD; Phone Number: 617-513-8762; Email: mcruzgonzalez@mgh.harvard.edu

Study Locations

• United States
  • Illinois
    • Chicago, Illinois, United States, 60608
      • Recruiting
      • University of Illinois, Chicago
      • Contact: Dana Rusch, PhD; Phone Number: 312-413-1708; Email: drusch1@uic.edu
      • Principal Investigator: Dana Rusch, PhD
  • Massachusetts
    • Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 02215
      • Recruiting
      • Boston University
      • Contact: Jennifer Green; Phone Number: 617-353-3253; Email: jggreen@bu.edu
    • Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 02119
      • Recruiting
      • METCO
      • Contact: Wilmary Tejeda, MPA; Phone Number: 119 617-427-1545; Email: wtejeda@metcoinc.org

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

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

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Adolescents ages 14 and older in grades 9-12 during the Fall/Winter or in grades 9-11 during the Spring
• Enrolled in a partner site in Massachusetts or Illinois
• Adolescents are only included with parent consent and youth assent if they are under the age of 18. Adolescents at least 18 years old can provide consent.

Exclusion Criteria:

• They participated in the pilot phase (UG3)
• They cannot commit to participation in the full study (e.g., attendance at all intervention sessions)
• They are not in grades 9-12 at a partner site
• Parent/guardian has a preferred consent 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 and to increase youth mental, emotional, and behavioral health. Youth voice is incorporated into the intervention, with facilitators leading the first 7 sessions, and youth leading the remainder.; Other Names: LEAP

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Engagement, Perseverance, Optimism, Connectedness, and Happiness (EPOCH; Kern et al., 2016) 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, 6 months, 9 months
Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ; Goodman, 2001)	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, 6 months, 9 months
Self-Rated Health 12-item Short-Form Survey (SF-12; Ware et al., 1996)	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, 6 months, 9 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Student Career Construction Inventory (Savickas, 2018)	18 item measure 5-point survey measuring crystallizing a vocational self-concept, exploring to gather information about occupations, deciding to commit to an occupational choice, and preparing to implement that choice. Scale scores range from 1-5, with higher scores indicating greater focus on each of the four tasks of career choice construction.	Baseline, 2-3 months, 6 months, 9 months
Vocational Skills Self-Efficacy (VSSE; McWhirter et al., 2000)	29 item 5-point survey measuring level of confidence to establish and work toward job goals. Scale scores range from 29-145, with higher scores indicating greater vocational self-efficacy.	Baseline, 2-3 months, 6 months, 9 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Boston University Charles River Campus
• Collaborators: National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Mario Cruz-Gonzalez, PhD, Massachusetts General Hospital; Principal Investigator: Jennifer Greif Green, Ph, Boston University

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Alegria M, Alvarez K, NeMoyer A, Zhen-Duan J, Marsico C, O'Malley IS, Mukthineni R, Porteny T, Herrera CN, Najarro Cermeno J, Kingston K, Sisay E, Trickett E. Development of a Youth Civic Engagement Program: Process and Pilot Testing with a Youth-Partnered Research Team. Am J Community Psychol. 2022 Mar;69(1-2):86-99. doi: 10.1002/ajcp.12548. Epub 2021 Aug 4.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): December 16, 2024
• Primary Completion (Estimated): March 1, 2028
• Study Completion (Estimated): March 1, 2028

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: December 12, 2024
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 12, 2024
• First Posted (Actual): December 16, 2024

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): June 4, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 2, 2026
• Last Verified: July 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: mindfulness; youth leadership; youth wellbeing
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Behavioral Symptoms; Problem Behavior; Organization and Administration; Health Services Administration; Behavior Therapy; Psychotherapy; Behavioral Disciplines and Activities; Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; Personnel Management; Mindfulness; Leadership
• Other Study ID Numbers: 7018E; 4UH3AT012530 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: Determinations will be made on a case-by-case basis of what type of data can be shared while maintaining confidentiality of respondents. The investigators are still establishing a plan for data sharing.
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: Data will be shared after findings for primary outcomes are published. Time frame for sharing will be based on requests, based on recommendations from the funding agency.
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: Determinations will be made on a case-by-case basis of what type of data can be shared while maintaining confidentiality of respondents. Any data shared will be de-identified and will follow established systems for security in data use.
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: STUDY_PROTOCOL; SAP; ANALYTIC_CODE

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