Transparent Communication to Improve Mental Wellbeing and Attitude Towards Reintegration

Transparent Communication to Improve Mental Wellbeing and Public Attitude Towards the Reintegration of Former Boko Haram Members in Nigeria: A Pilot Randomised Control Trial

Reintegrating those once affiliated with proscribed terrorist groups constitutes significant global challenges due to public stigma, poor awareness of reintegration programmes and resentment towards incentives provided to rehabilitated former members of such groups. Of central concern is the anxiety, trauma and depression suffered alongside distrust for reintegration programmes, including the genuine repentance of former members of the proscribed group. The implication is its risk in exacerbating reoffending. Yet, a gap exists to address this urgent problem. The proposed study seeks to test and pilot the feasibility and acceptability of a novel intervention called Prosociality, Empathy and Awareness Communication to aid rEintegration (PEACE) in improving mental well-being and public attitude towards reintegration. The intervention is a low-intensity intervention lasting approximately 3-5 minutes design to create awareness on the rationale behind reintegration programme, reduce anxiety, depression and foster positive attitude towards reintegration.

Study Overview

• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Conditions: Depression; Stress; Anxiety; Trauma; Trauma, Psychological
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Prosociality, Empathy and Awareness Communication to aid rEintegration (PEACE)

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 74
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Tarela J Ike, PhD; Phone Number: 0164234231; Email: T.ike@tees.ac.uk
• Study Contact Backup: Name: Dung E Jidong, PhD; Email: Dung.jidong@manchester.ac.uk

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

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

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• 18 years and above
• Able to provide full consent for their participation.
• A resident of the study areas

Exclusion Criteria:

• Less than 18 years
• Unable to consent
• Currently undergoing severe mental health treatment
• Unable to speak the English language fluently

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Prosociality, Empathy and Awareness Communication to aid rEintegration (PEACE); The Prosociality, Empathy and Awareness Communication to aid rEintegration (PEACE) intervention is a low-intensity intervention lasting 3-5 minutes.	Behavioral: Prosociality, Empathy and Awareness Communication to aid rEintegration (PEACE); The Prosociality, Empathy and Awareness Communication to aid rEintegration (PEACE) intervention is a low-intensity intervention lasting 3-5 minutes. The intervention is underpinned by awareness creation, reducing depression and anxiety and the purpose of reintegration programme to encourage change in negative attitudes towards reintegration. The recorded message introduction will commence with a welcome address on the topic, and this is followed by the core message and a closing remark. The core message is composed of three key ambits: 1) emphasizing mental health and welbeing alongside the importance of the reintegration programme, the rationale behind the reintegration programme, including the provision of incentives to dissuade reoffending, (ii) the need for empathy, prosociality, and positive social identity and advantages of reintegration and (iii) calling on the public to forgive and accept them back. The programme will end with a thank you to the audience for listening.
No Intervention: Control - Waitlist Group; The control group will not receive an intervention until after the assessment periods at baseline (day 1), and end of intervention (day 2) before they will be administered the PEACE intervention.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Service Satisfaction Scale	A five item scale that can be used to assess and measure satisfaction, acceptability and quality of the intervention. Higher score denote positive outcomes and acceptability. Lower score denotes poor satisfaction and acceptability.	At the end of intervention (day 2)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist (PCL-5)	The PCL-5 is a 20-item self-report measure that can be used to assess the 20 DSM-5 symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder. A 5-10 point change represents reliable change (i.e., change not due to chance) and a 10-20 point change represents clinically significant change.	Baseline (day 1) and at the end of intervention (day 2)
Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7)	The GAD-7 is a seven item scale for screening, measuring and assessing the severity of generalised anxiety disorder. Scores of 5, 10, and 15 are taken as the cut-off points for mild, moderate and severe anxiety, respectively.	Baseline (day 1) and at the end of intervention (day 2)
Oslo Social Support Scale (OSSS-3)	The scale is a 3-item self-reported measure designed for assessing and measuring the level of social support. The sum score ranges from 3 to 14, with high values representing strong levels and low values representing poor levels of social support as indicated as follows: a) 3-8 poor social support, b) 9-11 moderate social support, c) 12-14 strong social support.	Baseline (day 1) and at the end of intervention (day 2)
Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9)	The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) is a 9-item questionnaire that will be used for screening, monitoring, measuring and assessing the severity of depression. Low scores (e.g. 0-4) indicate no depression, however, higher scores (20-27) indicates severe depression.	Baseline (day 1) and at the end of intervention (day 2)
European Quality of Life Scale EQ-5D-5L	The EQ-5D-5L is a 5 item scale designed to aid assessment of the generic quality of life. In the EQ-5D-5L, each dimension has five response levels: no problems (Level 1); slight (Level 2); moderate (Level 3); severe (Level 4); and extreme problems (Level 5). There are 3,125 possible health states defined by combining one level from each dimension, ranging from 11111 (full health) to 55555 (worst health).	Baseline (day 1) and at the end of intervention (day 2)
Legal-informed Awareness of Complaint Channel Scale (LACCS)	The LACCS is a 10-item scale that is designed for assessing and measuring level of awareness of complaint channels and legal rights. The scale has an overall rating of 30, with 0-7 indicating poor knowledge, 8-15 (average knowledge), 16-22 (good knowledge) and 23-30 (excellent knowledge).	Baseline (day 1) and at the end of intervention (day 2)
Attitude Towards Repentant Terrorist and their Reintegration Scale (ATRTRS)	The scale os a 26-item scale that is designed for assessing attitude towards repentant terrorist and their reintegration. The scale has a total score of 130 and assigned the following rating: 1 = Extremely poor reintegration attitude (1-26); 2 = Poor reintegration attitude (27-52); 3 = Moderate attitude towards reintegration (53-78); 4 = Good attitude towards reintegration (79-104); and 5 = Very good attitude towards reintegration (105-130).	Baseline (day 1) and at the end of intervention (day 2)

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Vignette	The vignette will be based on hypothetical ex-Boko Haram members, fighter and those forced to join with varying roles within the group and what they did as appropriate. The participants will then be asked 3 sets of outcome measures which relates to Behavioural attitude, emotions and attitude towards reintegration programme.	Baseline (day 1) and at the end of intervention (day 2)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Teesside University
• Collaborators: University of Manchester; Jos University Teaching Hospital

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Owonikoko, S. B. (2022). "Take them to government house or Aso Rock": Community receptivity to reintegration of operation safe corridor's deradicalised Ex-Boko Haram members in Northeastern Nigeria. Cogent Social Sciences, 8(1), 2015884.
• Abdullahi, I., & Onabanjo, H. (2024). Reintegration of ex-combatants and peacebuilding in terrorised communities in northeastern Nigeria. International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), 9 (7), 2283, 2307.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Estimated): December 10, 2025
• Primary Completion (Estimated): September 30, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): September 30, 2026

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: May 20, 2025
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 24, 2025
• First Posted (Actual): November 26, 2025

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): November 26, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 24, 2025
• Last Verified: November 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Depression; Anxiety; Trauma; Reintegration
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Trauma and Stressor Related Disorders; Mental Disorders; Behavioral Symptoms; Stress Disorders, Traumatic; Behavior; Psychological Trauma; Anxiety Disorders; Depression; Wounds and Injuries
• Other Study ID Numbers: 0000-0003-0516-0313g

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO
• IPD Plan Description: Data supporting this study cannot be made available due to the sensitive nature and ethical reasons on confidentiality.

Drug and device information, study documents

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