Effectiveness Trial of Youth Suicide Prevention Delivered by Teen Peer Leaders

NCT02043093 | Completed DMC

• 1 other identifier: 5R01MH091452
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 17,603
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of the school-based Sources of Strength program in reducing suicidal behaviors in the population of high school students and determine how the program works (mechanisms of change). Sources of Strength trains diverse high school students as Peer Leaders, who conduct school-wide prevention messaging activities with ongoing adult mentoring designed to increase positive coping norms and practices, help-seeking and increase youth-adult connections. Sources of Strength is expected to enhance school coping practices, increase help-seeking among distressed and suicidal youth, and reduce the number of students in the population who attempt suicide. A total of 40 high schools in primarily rural and micropolitan regions of New York State and North Dakota will participate in this study that uses a randomized wait-listed design.

Conditions

Suicide Prevention

Keywords

Adolescent suicide prevention; Peer Leader prevention model; Universal school-based prevention

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Change in Suicide Attempts

  Item on suicide attempts from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey: "During the past 12 months, how many times did you actually attempt suicide?"

  change from baseline to 18 months

Secondary Outcomes (5)

• Change in Help Seeking Acceptability at School

  change from baseline to 18 months

• Change in Adult Help for Suicidal Youth

  change from baseline to 18 months

• Change in Reject Codes of Silence

  change from baseline to 18 months

• Change in number of Named Trusted Adults

  change from baseline to 18 months

• Change in proportion of suicidal students who name adult who has helped them

  change from baseline to 18 months

Study Arms (2)

Waiting

NO INTERVENTION

Surveys are administered to school students and staff, but Sources of Strength program is not implemented until the school year following two years of survey participation

Intervention

EXPERIMENTAL

School receives Sources of Strength Peer Leader training and implementation for two school years, beginning in fall of enrollment year. Peer leaders are actively implementing program across two school years. Students and school staff participate in surveys across the two implementing school years.

Behavioral: Sources of Strength

Interventions

Sources of Strength BEHAVIORAL

Sources of Strength (http://www.sourcesofstrength.com/) has three phases: 1. Introduction to school and community partners. Staff advisors for the program are identified and trained. 2. A standard process is used for nominating student peer leaders, who are trained through a 4-hour interactive workshop. A major focus is on increasing knowledge of 'sources of strength' and skills for increasing use of those resources for themselves and other students. 3. Peer Leaders plan and conduct messaging with Adult Advisor mentoring. A school-wide messaging phase involves presentations; media campaigns through posters, public service announcements, videos.

Intervention

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 13 Years - 20 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17), Adult (18-64)

You may qualify if:

• currently enrolled high school students

You may not qualify if:

• below 7th grade reading level in English
• parent declines permission

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Rochester: lead
• National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH): collaborator
• Columbia University: collaborator
• Northwestern University: collaborator
• University of Southern California: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

University of Rochester

Rochester, New York, 14642, United States

Location

Related Publications (5)

• Wyman PA, Brown CH, LoMurray M, Schmeelk-Cone K, Petrova M, Yu Q, Walsh E, Tu X, Wang W. An outcome evaluation of the Sources of Strength suicide prevention program delivered by adolescent peer leaders in high schools. Am J Public Health. 2010 Sep;100(9):1653-61. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2009.190025. Epub 2010 Jul 15.

  PMID: 20634440 BACKGROUND

• Schmeelk-Cone K, Pisani AR, Petrova M, Wyman PA. Three scales assessing high school students' attitudes and perceived norms about seeking adult help for distress and suicide concerns. Suicide Life Threat Behav. 2012 Apr;42(2):157-72. doi: 10.1111/j.1943-278X.2011.00079.x. Epub 2012 Feb 10.

  PMID: 22324773 BACKGROUND

• Pisani AR, Schmeelk-Cone K, Gunzler D, Petrova M, Goldston DB, Tu X, Wyman PA. Associations between suicidal high school students' help-seeking and their attitudes and perceptions of social environment. J Youth Adolesc. 2012 Oct;41(10):1312-24. doi: 10.1007/s10964-012-9766-7. Epub 2012 May 6.

  PMID: 22562217 BACKGROUND

• Brown CH, Wyman PA, Guo J, Pena J. Dynamic wait-listed designs for randomized trials: new designs for prevention of youth suicide. Clin Trials. 2006;3(3):259-71. doi: 10.1191/1740774506cn152oa.

  PMID: 16895043 BACKGROUND

• Pisani AR, Wyman PA, Petrova M, Schmeelk-Cone K, Goldston DB, Xia Y, Gould MS. Emotion regulation difficulties, youth-adult relationships, and suicide attempts among high school students in underserved communities. J Youth Adolesc. 2013 Jun;42(6):807-20. doi: 10.1007/s10964-012-9884-2. Epub 2012 Dec 18.

  PMID: 23666604 RESULT

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Suicide Prevention

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Suicide; Self-Injurious Behavior; Behavioral Symptoms; Behavior

Study Officials

• Peter A Wyman, PhD

  University of Rochester

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: PREVENTION
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Professor

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: January 15, 2014
• First Posted: January 23, 2014
• Study Start: August 1, 2010
• Primary Completion: June 1, 2015
• Study Completion: June 1, 2016
• Last Updated: January 5, 2017

Record last verified: 2017-01

Locations

US (1)