Plain English Summary
Background and study aims
Young adolescents living in adversity are at risk of psychological distress and a range of mental disorders. The aim of this study is to test a new intervention with young adolescents in vulnerable communities in Lebanon. The psychological intervention is designed to reduce high psychological distress.
Who can participate?
Young adolescents aged 10-14 who reside in the communities in which we will deliver the intervention, and are experiencing high psychological distress.
What does the study involve?
Young adolescents who are interested in participating and who have parental consent, will take part in a screening interview to determine their eligibility. If eligible, they will be randomly allocated into two groups. Young adolescents in one group are invited to participate in seven group sessions of approximately 90 minutes, and their caregivers will be invited to attend three separate group sessions. Young adolescents in the other group receive enhanced treatment as usual, consisting of a single home-visit session describing psychological distress, its causes, and what one can do to decrease psychological distress; and access to existing services. Various indicators of mental health and wellbeing are measured before, immediately after, 3 months, and 12 months after completion of the intervention.
What are the possible benefits and risks of participating?
Likely benefits include reduced psychological distress and improved wellbeing. Discussion of difficult feelings may lead to temporary increases in psychological distress. In small previous studies this risk has not been observed occurring.
Where is the study run from?
War Child Holland (Lebanon Office)
When is the study starting and how long is it expected to run for?
March 2019 to December 2020
Who is funding the study?
The European Commission under Horizon 2020 – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2014-2020).
Who is the main contact?
Dr Mark Jordans, firstname.lastname@example.org
Early Adolescent Skills for Emotions (EASE) in the treatment of psychological distress for young adolescents in Lebanon: A randomized controlled trial
We hypothesise that children and caregivers assigned to receive the EASE intervention, will show significantly greater improvements on all outcome measures, compared to enhanced treatment as usual) at post-intervention (T1) and 3-month follow-up (T2), and that these gains will be maintained at 12 month follow-up (T3). We hypothesise that treatment effects will be mediated by increased caregiver and child use of coping strategies.
Approved 20/03/2018, St Joseph’s University in Lebanon (Centre universitaire d'ethique, Campus des sciences medicales, rue de Dumas, BP 11-5076, Riad el Solh, Beyrouth, Lebanon; 961-1-421229; email@example.com) ref: ID: USJ – 2017 – 24 bis; and WHO Ethical Review Committee (ERC Secretariat, Avenue Appia 20, Geneva 1211, Switzerland; firstname.lastname@example.org), ref: Protocol ID: ERC.0003000
Two-arm single-blind individually randomized group treatment trial
Primary study design
Secondary study design
Randomised controlled trial
Patient information sheet
Not available in web format, please use contact details to request a participant information sheet
Adolescents in participating communities in Lebanon are randomised to the following two conditions.
1. The Early Adolescent Skills for Emotions (EASE) program. This is a group psychological intervention based on empirically‐supported strategies for emotional disorders in children and young people. It consists of 7 x 90-minute group sessions for adolescents and 3 x 120-minute group sessions for their caregivers. Adolescent sessions involve the following strategies: psychoeducation, problem solving, stress management (slow breathing), behavioural activation, and relapse prevention. The caregiver sessions involve: psychoeducation, active listening, quality time, praise, caregiver self-care and relapse prevention.
2. The control condition will consist of enhanced treatment as usual (ETAU), which will involve 