Task-Shifting Adapted IPT-A for Youth Suicide Prevention

Youth Mentor-Led Brief Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Youth Suicide Prevention

The goal of this randomized pragmatic clinical trial is to examine the feasibility, acceptability, and mechanisms of change of a brief adaptation of Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Adolescents (BIPT-A), adapted and task-shifted to lay providers (mentors, youth trusted adults) in youth community centers (YCCs) as an upstream approach to suicide.

It focuses on Hispanic adolescents ages 12-17 enrolled in these YCCs. The pragmatic clinical trial will evaluate the acceptability and feasibility of adapted IPT-A delivered by mentors in YCCs and whether adapted BIPT-A impacts mechanisms of change (depressive symptoms, belongingness, and burdensomeness or feeling like a burden to others).

The main questions to answer are:

• Is adapted BIPT-A, when delivered by trained lay providers (youth mentors), feasible and acceptable in youth community centers?
• Does adapted BIPT-A, delivered by lay providers, change key risk factors (i.e., key mechanisms: depressive symptoms, low belongingness, and perceived burdensomeness) associated with suicide ideation? The investigators will compare adolescents randomized to adapted BIPT-A (6 sessions) delivered by a trained youth mentor with those receiving usual services at the community center (one individual session focused on active listening).

Participants will:

1. Be screened for subthreshold depression using the Patient Health Questionnaire Adolescent version (PHQ-A). Adolescent participants will be included if they score between 4 and 9 (mild depression). Participants with a PHQ-A score of 10 or higher (severe depression) will not be eligible and will be referred to a licensed mental health provider for appropriate care.
2. Be randomized to adapted BIPT-A or usual care. Adolescent participants in the intervention arm will participate in 6 weekly, adapted BIPT-A sessions with a trained youth mentor. Intervention focuses on education, affect identification, and interpersonal skills.

Study Overview

• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Conditions: Suicidal Ideation; Depressive Symptoms; Adolescent Mental Health
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Usual Community Center Services; Behavioral: Adapted Brief Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Adolescents (IPT-A LAZOS)

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 46
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Carolina Vélez-Grau, PhD and LCSW; Phone Number: 16175522539; Email: velezgra@bc.edu
• Study Contact Backup: Name: Krystel Francis, BA; Email: francik@bc.edu

Study Locations

• United States
  • Massachusetts
    • Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States, 02467
      • Boston College
      • Contact: Carolina Vélez-Grau, PhD, LCSW; Phone Number: 6175522539; Email: velezgra@bc.edu
      • Contact: Email: velezgra@bc.edu
      • Principal Investigator: Carolina Vélez-Grau, PHD, LCSW

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Parent consent
2. Adolescent consent
3. Enrolled in youth community centers
4. Self-identified as Hispanic or Latine
5. Between 12 and 17 years old.
6. Scoring threshold for depression (4-9) as indicated in the PHQ-A.
7. No current report of suicide ideation with plan or self-harming behaviors

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Not consented to participate in the study
2. Scoring 10 or higher in the PHQ-A, indicating depressive disorder
3. Active suicide ideation (i.e., having thoughts of killing oneself, thinking about how in the past month).

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Usual Community Center Services; Participants in this arm will continue to receive the standard youth programming and services offered at the participating community centers. This is an individual session focused on active listening.	Other: Usual Community Center Services; Participants in this arm will continue to receive the standard youth programs and services offered by the youth community centers, including mentoring, academic support, and recreational activities. They will not receive BIPT-A.; Other Names: Usual Care; Standard Youth Programming
Experimental: Adapted IPT-A Delivered by Youth Mentors; Participants in this arm will receive 6 weekly sessions of an adapted, brief Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Adolescents (BIPT-A) delivered by trained youth mentors (n=5) at the partnering youth community centers. The intervention focuses on improving interpersonal functioning, communication skills, and supportive relationships to reduce depressive symptoms, low belongingness, and perceived burdensomeness.	Behavioral: Adapted Brief Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Adolescents (IPT-A LAZOS); Adolescents in this intervention will receive 6 weekly sessions of an adapted brief version of Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Adolescents (BIPT-A), delivered by trained lay providers (i.e., youth mentors) in youth community centers. The adaptation used a community-participatory research approach to culturally and contextually meet the needs of immigrant-origin inner-city adolescents. The adapted intervention keeps core elements (education, affect identification, and interpersonal skills) and bolsters these skills to target belongingness and burdensomeness, which are factors associated with suicide ideation. Sessions follow a structured, manualized approach. The goal is to reduce depressive symptoms, increase sense of belongingness, and decrease perceived burdensomeness among adolescents with subthreshold depression (score between 4-9 in the PHQ-A).; Other Names: IPT-A; BIPT-A

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Feasibility of the intervention	The Feasibility of Intervention Measure (FIM) is a 4-item self-report survey (Weiner et al., 2017) used to assess whether the intervention can be successfully carried out (feasible). The scores for the 4 items are averaged, yielding a total score of 1-5, where 1-2 indicates low perceived feasibility, 3 indicates moderate, and 4-5 indicates high perceived feasibility. In summary, higher scores indicate higher perceived feasibility (a better outcome).	Up to 7 weeks.
Acceptability of the intervention	The Acceptability and Appropriateness of Intervention Measure (AIM) is an 8-item self-report survey that assesses whether the intervention is satisfactory (acceptability) and relevant (appropriateness). The measure is divided into 4-item subscales: acceptability and appropriateness. These constructs are evaluated separately, with an average score ranging from 1 (low) to 5 (high) (Weiner et al., 2017). Higher scores indicate higher satisfaction (acceptability) and relevance (appropriateness), meaning a better outcome.	Up to 7 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in depressive symptoms	Depressive symptoms are one of the study's mechanisms of change associated with passive suicide ideation. Depressive symptoms will be measured with the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 Adolescent version (PHQ-A), a 9-item self-report scale. PHQ-A has been validated with the adolescent and Hispanic populations. Most studies use ≥10 as the cutoff score, indicating clinically significant depressive symptoms among adolescents. The total score is the sum of all 9 items (0-27), where 0-4 is minimal or no depression, 5-9 mild depression, 10-14 moderate depression, 15-19 moderately severe depression, and 20-27 severe depression. In summary, higher scores indicate greater severity of depressive symptoms (a worse outcome).	Up to 7 weeks.
Change in interpersonal factors associated with passive suicide ideation.	Thwarted Belongingness (TB) and Perceived Burdensomeness (PB) are two factors associated with passive suicide ideation. These two factors are mechanisms of change targeted by the intervention. The Interpersonal Needs Assessment (INQ-15) measures the extent to which individuals believe they belong (i.e., TB using 9 items) or perceive themselves as a burden to others (i.e., PB using 6 items), which are scored separately, one for TB and one for PB. Scholars use either the sum score or the average. This study will use mean scores because they preserve the 1-7 scale and provide easier, consistent interpretation. Higher scores indicate higher Thwarted Belongingness and Perceived Burdensomeness (worse outcomes).	Up to 7 weeks.

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in anxiety symptoms	Due to the co-occurrence of depressive symptoms with anxiety among adolescents, the investigators will measure anxiety symptoms. The Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7), a 7-item self-report scale to assess anxiety, will be used to measure anxiety symptoms. A score of 10 or above typically indicates clinically significant anxiety symptoms and the need for further evaluation. The items (7) are summed, with scores ranging from 0 to 21, where 0-4 indicates minimal anxiety, 5-9 mild anxiety, 10-14 moderate anxiety, and 15-21 severe anxiety. Higher scores indicate greater anxiety severity (a worse outcome).	Up to 7 weeks.
Change in experiences with discrimination	The Adolescent Discrimination Distress Index (ADDI; Fisher, Scyatta, & Fenton, 2000) is a 15-item measure that assesses adolescent distress in response to perceived instances of racially motivated discrimination in institutional (e.g., stores, restaurants), educational (e.g., teacher evaluations), and peer contexts. It was developed to examine the nature and impact of racial and ethnic discrimination on development in multiethnic samples of youth. Students indicate whether they have experienced each type of discrimination because of their race or ethnicity and, if so, they rate how much it upset them, on a 5-point scale ranging from not at all to extremely. Total score range (15-75 using a sum). Higher scores indicate higher levels of distress (a worse outcome).	Up to 7 weeks.

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Boston College
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Carolina Vélez-Grau, PHD, LCSW, Boston College; Study Chair: Laura Mufson, PhD, Columbia University; Study Chair: Susan Witte, PhD, Columbia University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Estimated): August 1, 2026
• Primary Completion (Estimated): December 1, 2027
• Study Completion (Estimated): July 31, 2028

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: January 25, 2026
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 26, 2026
• First Posted (Actual): February 3, 2026

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): May 12, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 8, 2026
• Last Verified: May 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Behavioral Symptoms; Self-Injurious Behavior; Suicide; Behavior; Suicidal Ideation; Depression
• Other Study ID Numbers: 24.274; K23MH137405 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Data Archive (NDA) will be used. NDA is an NIH-funded collaborative resource that contains harmonized human subjects research data. Data submitted to the NDA is stripped of identifiers.
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: Data will be available at the end of the study in 2029.
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: Based on the NDA, the qualified scientific community will have access to de-identified data from the study.
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: 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