Early Adolescent Skills for Emotions

NCT06934954 | Recruiting

• 2 other identifiers: EASE000001
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 200
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The EASE program is an existing, evidence-based program/intervention (originally developed by the WHO), and this study is limited to evaluating the local implementation of this program. The aims of this pilot study are to:

• Assess the acceptability and feasibility of training and supervision of EASE Helpers (community staff members) through an adapted EASE training.
• Evaluate possible problems of recruitment, intervention delivery, and participant retention.
• Assess the feasibility of EASE being delivered via a partnership between researchers and community members.
• Evaluate implementation of EASE via the RE-AIM (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance) framework A mixed-methods design with qualitative and quantitative approaches will be used to assess these objectives.

Conditions

Community Mental Health Services

Keywords

Youth Mental Health; Adolescent Mental Health; Community Mental Health

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Pediatric Symptom Checklist Youth Report (Y-PSC)

  For youth participants: The Pediatric Symptom Checklist Youth Report (Y-PSC) is a 35 item questionnaire that helps identify and assess changes in emotional and behavioral problems in children. Participants are to respond to how often they have had certain thoughts, feelings, and experiences listed in the questionnaire in the past 2 weeks with the options "never", "sometimes", and "often".

  8 months

Secondary Outcomes (9)

• Patient Health Questionnaire - Adolescent Version (PHQ-A)

  8 months

• Warwick Edinburgh Well-being Scale (WEMWBS)

  8 months

• Impairment of Daily Function

  8 months

• Psychological Sense of School Membership (PSSM)

  8 months

• Parental Stress Scale (PSS)

  8 months

Study Arms (1)

EASE Intervention

EXPERIMENTAL

EASE targets psychological distress in adolescents ages 10 to 15 years old through seven group sessions with adolescents and three group sessions with the adolescents' caregivers. Each session is 90 minutes, and adolescents learn and engage in strategies that progress in complexity throughout the intervention. Through EASE, adolescents learn how to identify their emotions, distress-related physical arousal, slow breathing as a healthy coping strategy, behavioral activation to engage in meaningful activities, and problem-solving skills. RCTs have indicated the scalability and efficacy of EASE in LMICs like Lebanon and Syria. To prepare for pilot implementation, researchers from The New School Center for Global Mental Health collected feedback from community partners on EASE in 2024. Based on community recommendations, EASE was adapted for the current study.

Behavioral: EASE

Interventions

EASE BEHAVIORAL

This is the first time EASE is being used in New York to support youth community mental health.

EASE Intervention

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 10 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17), Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Adolescents
• years old
• English-speaking
• Has obtained parental permission from a legally authorized representative (e.g. legal guardian).
• ○ Caregiver
• English-speaking
• Is a caretaker of a child ages 10-15 years old, meaning they regularly take care of a child
• Adults who are above the age of 18 who meet the above criteria can participate.

You may not qualify if:

• The program is not intended for adolescents and caregivers who are experiencing severe cognitive impairments and/or have an imminent risk of suicide/acute protection needs.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• The New School: lead

Study Sites (1)

The New School Center for Global Mental Health

New York, New York, 10011, United States

RECRUITING

Related Publications (9)

• Brown FL, Taha K, Steen F, Kane J, Gillman A, Aoun M, Malik A, Bryant R, Sijbrandij M, El Chammay R, Servili C, van Ommeren M, Akhtar A, Zoghbi E; EASE Intervention Development, Training Team; Jordans MJD; STRENGTHS Consortium. Feasibility randomised controlled trial of the Early Adolescent Skills for Emotions psychological intervention with young adolescents in Lebanon. BMC Psychiatry. 2023 Mar 1;23(1):131. doi: 10.1186/s12888-023-04571-9.

  PMID: 36858980 BACKGROUND

• Castro-Ramirez F, Al-Suwaidi M, Garcia P, Rankin O, Ricard JR, Nock MK. Racism and Poverty are Barriers to the Treatment of Youth Mental Health Concerns. J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol. 2021 Jul-Aug;50(4):534-546. doi: 10.1080/15374416.2021.1941058. Epub 2021 Aug 2.

  PMID: 34339320 BACKGROUND

• Fan Q, DuPont-Reyes MJ, Hossain MM, Chen LS, Lueck J, Ma P. Racial and ethnic differences in major depressive episode, severe role impairment, and mental health service utilization in U.S. adolescents. J Affect Disord. 2022 Jun 1;306:190-199. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2022.03.015. Epub 2022 Mar 14.

  PMID: 35301042 BACKGROUND

• Dawson KS, Watts S, Carswell K, Shehadeh MH, Jordans MJD, Bryant RA, Miller KE, Malik A, Brown FL, Servili C, van Ommeren M. Improving access to evidence-based interventions for young adolescents: Early Adolescent Skills for Emotions (EASE). World Psychiatry. 2019 Feb;18(1):105-107. doi: 10.1002/wps.20594. No abstract available.

  PMID: 30600639 BACKGROUND

• Alegria M, Vallas M, Pumariega AJ. Racial and ethnic disparities in pediatric mental health. Child Adolesc Psychiatr Clin N Am. 2010 Oct;19(4):759-74. doi: 10.1016/j.chc.2010.07.001.

  PMID: 21056345 BACKGROUND

• Weersing VR, Gonzalez A, Hatch B, Lynch FL. Promoting Racial/Ethnic Equity in Psychosocial Treatment Outcomes for Child and Adolescent Anxiety and Depression. Psychiatr Res Clin Pract. 2022 Sep 9;4(3):80-88. doi: 10.1176/appi.prcp.20210044. eCollection 2022 Fall.

  PMID: 36177440 BACKGROUND

• Lu W, Todhunter-Reid A, Mitsdarffer ML, Munoz-Laboy M, Yoon AS, Xu L. Barriers and Facilitators for Mental Health Service Use Among Racial/Ethnic Minority Adolescents: A Systematic Review of Literature. Front Public Health. 2021 Mar 8;9:641605. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2021.641605. eCollection 2021.

  PMID: 33763401 BACKGROUND

• Jordans MJD, Brown FL, Kane J, Taha K, Steen F, Ali R, Elias J, Meksassi B, Aoun M, Greene CM, Malik A, Akhtar A, van Ommeren M, Sijbrandij M, Bryant R; STRENGTHS consortium. Evaluation of the Early Adolescent Skills for Emotions (EASE) intervention in Lebanon: A randomized controlled trial. Compr Psychiatry. 2023 Nov;127:152424. doi: 10.1016/j.comppsych.2023.152424. Epub 2023 Sep 16.

  PMID: 37748283 BACKGROUND

• Bryant RA, Malik A, Aqel IS, Ghatasheh M, Habashneh R, Dawson KS, Watts S, Jordans MJD, Brown FL, van Ommeren M, Akhtar A. Effectiveness of a brief group behavioural intervention on psychological distress in young adolescent Syrian refugees: A randomised controlled trial. PLoS Med. 2022 Aug 12;19(8):e1004046. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1004046. eCollection 2022 Aug.

  PMID: 35960704 BACKGROUND

Study Officials

• Adam Brown, PhD

  The New School

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Central Study Contacts

Tina Xu, MA

CONTACT

2122295150; xut360@newschool.edu

Adam Brown, PhD

CONTACT

2122295150; brownad@newschool.edu

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NA
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: TREATMENT
• Intervention Model: SINGLE GROUP
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Principal Investigator

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: March 27, 2025
• First Posted: April 18, 2025
• Study Start: March 17, 2025
• Primary Completion: November 30, 2025
• Study Completion (Estimated): December 31, 2026
• Last Updated: April 18, 2025

Record last verified: 2025-04

Locations

US (1)