A Psychosocial Program Impact Evaluation in Jordan

NCT03012451 | Completed DMC

• 1 other identifier: 1502015359
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 817
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The study aims to deliver a robust pre-post evaluation of the wellbeing impacts of an innovative, brief, and scalable psychosocial intervention, delivered to refugee youth living in urban settlements in Jordan. The study was conducted using two waves of data collection: the first featured an intervention and a matched control group, the second featured a full randomized control trial.

Conditions

Stress, Psychological; Mental Health Impairment

Keywords

Stress; Insecurity; Mental Health

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (3)

• Psychosocial Stress: Insecurity (Regional Measure)

  Insecurity was measured with The Human Insecurity (HI). This tool was developed for use in the West Bank (Ziadni, Hammoudeh et al. 2011, Hamayel, Ghandour et al. 2014). The 10-item scale is a 5-point Likert scale with scores expressed as percentages on a scale of 0-100. The HI covers issues such as worries regarding inability to obtain daily life necessities, losing a source of income, fears about the future, and family safety.

  11 weeks

• Psychosocial stress: Distress (Regional Measure)

  Distress was measured with the Human Distress scale (Hamayel \& Ghandour, 2014), developed for use with conflict-affected adolescents in the West Bank. The 12-item scale is a 5-point Likert scale with scores expressed as percentages on a scale of 0-100. Sample items include, "To what extent have you felt worried," "To what extent did you feel humiliated," and "To what extent did you feel angry." Scores are presented as percentages (0-100%), with higher scores indicating greater distress.

  11 weeks

• Psychosocial Stress (International Measure)

  Stress was measured using the Arabic version of the Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen, Karmarck, \& Mermelstein, 1983), validated with a Jordanian sample (Almadi, Cathers, Hamdan Mansour, \& Chow, 2012). This 14-item, 5-point Likert scale measures perceived stress over the last month, with higher scores indicating greater stress. Items include, "How often have you been upset because of something that happened unexpectedly?" and "How often have you been able to control irritations in your life?" (reverse-scored) (1 = Never, 5 = Very often).

  11 weeks

Secondary Outcomes (7)

• Mental Health Difficulties: Regional Measure

  11 weeks

• Mental Health Difficulties: International Measure

  11 weeks

• Prosocial Behavior: International Measure

  11 weeks

• Resilience: Cross-cultural Measure

  11 weeks

• Biological Stress: Cortisol

  11 weeks

Other Outcomes (2)

• Posttraumatic stress symptoms

  11 weeks

• Genetic markers of trauma and/or stress

  11 weeks

Study Arms (2)

Advancing Adolescents

EXPERIMENTAL

Received structured eight-week psychosocial sessions

Behavioral: Advancing Adolescents

Control

NO INTERVENTION

Controls wait-listed for the intervention, matched for age and urban residence

Interventions

Advancing Adolescents BEHAVIORAL

The "Advancing Adolescents" programme is a structured 8-week psychosocial intervention for adolescents in humanitarian crises, based on profound stress attunement processes. It features three elements that are widely viewed as important to support youth adjustment in contexts of complex emergencies: (i) safety: establishment of a 'safe space' within the community as a base for activities and site of protection; (ii) support: facilitation of social support and self-expression; and (iii) structured activities: access to scheduled group activities.

Advancing Adolescents

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 12 Years - 18 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17), Adult (18-64)

You may qualify if:

• Eligible and enrolled in Mercy Corps Advancing Adolescents program
• Syrian refugee and Jordanian host-community youth residing in 4 urban centers in northern Jordan

You may not qualify if:

• Not available for study recruitment (started sessions or deferred sessions before study start date).

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Yale University: lead
• Queen Margaret University: collaborator
• University of Western Ontario, Canada: collaborator
• Harvard University: collaborator
• University of Florida: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

Yale University

New Haven, Connecticut, 05611, United States

Location

Related Publications (1)

• Panter-Brick C, Dajani R, Eggerman M, Hermosilla S, Sancilio A, Ager A. Insecurity, distress and mental health: experimental and randomized controlled trials of a psychosocial intervention for youth affected by the Syrian crisis. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2018 May;59(5):523-541. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.12832. Epub 2017 Oct 2.

  PMID: 28967980 DERIVED

Related Links

• Save the Children Fund Enhancing Learning and Research for Humanitarian Assistance

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Stress, Psychological; Psychological Well-Being

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Behavioral Symptoms; Behavior; Personal Satisfaction

Study Officials

• catherine panter-brick, PhD

  Yale University

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: TREATMENT
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: December 21, 2016
• First Posted: January 6, 2017
• Study Start: April 1, 2015
• Primary Completion: September 1, 2016
• Study Completion: April 1, 2017
• Last Updated: January 15, 2021

Record last verified: 2021-01

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

US (1)