Anxiety & Depression Association of America

Using a Mentoring Afterschool Program to Improve Adolescent Mental Health and Physical Activity: A Pilot Study

Purpose

Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic many youth are experiencing declines in physical activity and worsening mental health (e.g., depression symptoms). These declines are exacerbated among underserved youth who experience greater barriers to health services and exposure to life stressors that put them at increased risk for impaired mental, emotional, and behavioral health. School-based afterschool programming is an important strategy to reach this population of youth and provides intervention at a time when youth are likely to otherwise be in environments not supportive of health. Further participation in extracurricular activities has been shown to be a protective factor for youth mental health. However, consistent with the Behavioral Theory of Depression, youth who are currently inactive and who have depression symptoms are unlikely to participate in afterschool programming on their own and likely require heightened positive reinforcement when they do attend to encourage retention. Given the high prevalence of youth who experience symptoms of depression and resource and staffing challenges faced by many schools, the level of support needed to engage students to consistently participate and benefit from afterschool programming is often beyond the capacity of school-based afterschool programs. In partnership with a local afterschool program for middle school students in a low resource community, we developed an augmented version of the current afterschool program in which college students are trained to mentor and assist in the afterschool program, expanding the capacity of the afterschool program to engage students. The mentoring intervention uses behavioral activation principles to help youth connect their behaviors with their mood and support youth to engage in behaviors that improve their mood, including physical activity. The main purpose of this study is to pilot the feasibility of the newly developed intervention.

Condition

Depression

Eligibility

Eligible Ages: Between 9 Years and 99 Years
Eligible Genders: All
Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Inclusion Criteria

Any 6th , 7th , or 8th grade student who is enrolled in their after school plus program at a participating middle school Parent/Guardian Inclusion Criteria: - Any parent of a student who is enrolled in the study is eligible to participate. Mentor Inclusion Criteria: - Any mentor in the after school plus program is eligible to participate. Staff Member Inclusion Criteria: - Any staff member affiliated with the after school program at a participating middle school

Exclusion Criteria

Have a substantial cognitive impairment that would prevent the completion of data collection activities.

Study Design

Phase: N/A
Study Type: Interventional
Allocation: Non-Randomized
Intervention Model: Crossover Assignment
Intervention Model Description: The crossover occurs after the first semester (end of Month 4). The study will occur with two middle schools. Months 1-4 Participants at "School A" (Arm 1) receive the Afterschool as Usual condition in the first semester. Participants at "School B" (Arm 2) receive the Afterschool Plus condition in the first semester. Months 5-8 Participants at "School A" (Arm 1) receive the Afterschool Plus condition in the second semester. and the participants at "School B" (Arm 2) receive afterschool as Usual condition in the second semester.
Primary Purpose: Prevention
Masking: None (Open Label)

Arm Groups

Arm	Description	Assigned Intervention
Experimental School A	Middle school students at School A who participate in the after school program. They will receive after school as usual in months 1-4, followed by after school plus in months 5-8.	Behavioral: After School Plus The afterschool program as usual runs M-H and consists of a variety of clubs from which middle school students chose to enroll for a semester (~4 months). Clubs are offered on either a M/W or T/H schedule. Students receive a snack in the cafeteria each day before attending their class. Afterschool plus is the same as "Afterschool as Usual" with the addition of young adult mentors. Following snack, mentors will lead students in a short emotion regulation exercise including physical activity and breathing exercises. Mentors will prompt students to identify how they are feeling and make connections between the activities they are doing and their mood and then do activities with students in each class. On T/H, ~4 mentors will lead a new "DiscoverU " club which is based on behavioral activation principles and spends more time helping students identify and do more activities that improve their mood. The class promotes physical activity as an important strategy for mental health.
Experimental School B	Middle school students at School B who participate in the after school program. They will receive after school plus in months 1-4, followed by after school as usual in months 5-8.	Behavioral: After School Plus The afterschool program as usual runs M-H and consists of a variety of clubs from which middle school students chose to enroll for a semester (~4 months). Clubs are offered on either a M/W or T/H schedule. Students receive a snack in the cafeteria each day before attending their class. Afterschool plus is the same as "Afterschool as Usual" with the addition of young adult mentors. Following snack, mentors will lead students in a short emotion regulation exercise including physical activity and breathing exercises. Mentors will prompt students to identify how they are feeling and make connections between the activities they are doing and their mood and then do activities with students in each class. On T/H, ~4 mentors will lead a new "DiscoverU " club which is based on behavioral activation principles and spends more time helping students identify and do more activities that improve their mood. The class promotes physical activity as an important strategy for mental health.

Recruiting Locations

More Details

Status: Recruiting
Sponsor: University of Minnesota

Study Contact

Katherine Hendel
612-625-6616
khendel@umn.edu

Notice

Study information shown on this site is derived from ClinicalTrials.gov (a public registry operated by the National Institutes of Health). The listing of studies provided is not certain to be all studies for which you might be eligible. Furthermore, study eligibility requirements can be difficult to understand and may change over time, so it is wise to speak with your medical care provider and individual research study teams when making decisions related to participation.