Gratitude Interventions for Academic Stress Among Pakistani Adolescents

NCT05640505 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: UM.TNC2/UMREC-621
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 102
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The experimental nature of this study will provide the empirical data in analyzing the effectiveness of gratitude exercises which later can be adapted in stress reduction programs at school level. This research will focus on the school related positive life experiences for example thinking about a teacher/mentor kindness and contribution in their lives, then write a letter that describes their gratitude \& letter will be delivered to that person indirectly. This may help in focusing on the positive aspects of school life. This modification will serve as testing this new model for assessing the combined effect of gratitude interventions.

Conditions

Stress, Psychological

Keywords

Academic Expectations; Emotional Experiences

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (2)

• Academic Stress

  Academic Expectations, Daily Hassles. Academic Expectation Stress Inventory is a nine (09) item inventory developed by Ang and Huan (Ang, Huan 2006) is a reliable and valid instrument widely used especially in assessing parental expectations (Ang et al., 2009; Qadir et al., 2012; Sun, 2012; Zhang et al., 2016). The two subscales are Self-Expectations and Other expectations covering the domains of stress, self-blame, disappointment, anxiety, and feeling of inadequacy. It has Likert - type scoring ranging from 1 (never true) to 5 (almost always true) with high scores showing more stress.

  4 weeks

• Emotional Experiences

  Positive Emotions, Positivity Ratio. it will be measured through Modified Differential Emotions Scale is a reliable \& valid instrument to assess positive and negative emotions separately.It is a twenty (20) items instrument with Five (05) points likert scoring from "Not at all" to "Extremely". Overall positive and negative emotions ratio can also be created by computing the mean of 10 positive emotions divided by mean of 10 negative emotions. The scale is suitable to be used with adolescents

  4 weeks

Secondary Outcomes (1)

• Daily Hassles

  4 weeks

Study Arms (2)

Experimental

EXPERIMENTAL

This group received 03 gratitude interventions for 4 weeks

Behavioral: School based Gratitude Interventions

Control Group

NO INTERVENTION

This group did not receive any intervention during active phase. Only the scores on dependent variables were measured. After completion of study, the same interventions were repeated with this group.

Interventions

School based Gratitude Interventions BEHAVIORAL

Three gratitude interventions including Count your blessings, Gratitude Letter and Loving Kindness Meditation were applied with modification focusing on school related experiences. For example, writing a gratitude letter to a teacher, mentor or coach who played a significant role in one's life then imagining on the same person during LKM exercise of imagery. There were 9 sessions with 3-4 exercises in each session.

Experimental

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 14 Years - 17 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Child (0-17)

You may qualify if:

• High School Students
• Studying in same school for at least last six months
• within 14-17 years of age
• not having severe physical health issue or going under treatment for chronic illness

You may not qualify if:

• not able to understand Urdu language
• above 17 years of age or below 14 years
• recently enrolled in the particular school

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Malaya: lead

Study Sites (1)

Govt Islamia High School & Govt Girls High School

Rawalpindi, Punjab Province, 46000, Pakistan

Location

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Stress, Psychological

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Behavioral Symptoms; Behavior

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: SUPPORTIVE CARE
• Intervention Model: CROSSOVER
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Principal Investigator

Model Details: Experimental research design with randomized control trial with difference of 4 weeks were be applied. Pretest post-test was done to compare the difference in the scores of academic stress and emotional experiences among adolescents before and after the intervention. Two experimental conditions will be used: (1) Gratitude (individuals assigned with daily gratitude-inducing activity) and (2) Control (no-assigned activity). Both groups were measured at (a) Pre-test (prior to the intervention); (b) Post-test (immediately after intervention).

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: August 26, 2022
• First Posted: December 7, 2022
• Study Start: September 1, 2018
• Primary Completion: September 2, 2019
• Study Completion: November 1, 2019
• Last Updated: December 7, 2022

Record last verified: 2022-12

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

PA (1)