Dhital 2019.
| Study characteristics | |
| Methods |
Study design: cluster‐RCT Duration of study: the study was conducted between 2016 and 2017. Country: Nepal Income classification: lower‐income country in 2016‐2017 Geographical scope: Dhading, an earthquake‐affected district of Nepal Healthcare setting: 15 government secondary schools |
| Participants | 1. Age: intervention group (n = 605): mean 12.9 (SD: 1.3); control group (n = 615): mean 12.9 (SD: 1.4) 2. Gender: both 3. Socioeconomic background: not specified 4. Educational background: grades 6 to 8 Inclusion criteria: a. adolescents studying in grades 6, 7, and 8 of the selected schools at the time of data collection; b. adolescents with written consent from themselves and their guardian; c. adolescents without any known diagnosis of mental health problems. Exclusion criteria: adolescents who refused to participate. Note: at baseline, the intervention and control group scores for the Child PTSD Symptom Scale (CPSS) were, respectively, 16.4 (7.9) and 17.4 (8.1). Stated purpose: examined the effect of training for school teachers on psychosocial support for adolescents’ mental health and hope in an earthquake‐affected district in Nepal |
| Interventions |
Name: psychosocial support by teachers Title/name of PW and number: teachers (16) 1. Selection: the school principals from each school nominated two teachers to participate in the training. 2. Educational background: not specified 3. Training: the clinical psychologist provided two days of training on psychosocial support for the school teachers. The training comprised eight sessions in total with 1 to 2 hours for each session. The training was aimed at enabling the teachers to apply the different components of psychosocial support in their daily classroom activities. The sessions covered the following topics: key concepts and principles of psychosocial support; how children react to a crisis situation; the role of teachers in promoting psychosocial well‐being; how to discuss a crisis with children; activities for improved learning and recovery; how to manage challenging behaviour in the classroom; identifying and assisting children who may need more advanced support; teachers' well‐being. 4. Supervision: the research team interacted with the teachers at 6 months follow‐up through focus group discussions (FGDs) to understand their perspectives on the usefulness of the training and the activities they conducted after the training. 5. Incentives/remuneration: not specified Prevention type: selective prevention – adolescents from grades 6 to 8 from all the schools located in the districts that were affected by a natural disaster. Participants presented with some levels of distress which were well below the cut‐off for the measure. Intervention details: the intervention in this study was a teacher‐mediated school‐based intervention which falls under the second layer of intervention as outlined in Inter‐Agency Standing Committee (IASC) guidelines. Control: usual care – the schools in the control group did not receive any training on psychosocial support; the teachers for grades 6 to 8 did not receive any training on psychosocial support. |
| Outcomes |
Participants’outcomes of interest for this review
Carers’ outcomes of interest for this review Nil Economic outcomes Nil Time points: baseline, post‐intervention (1‐6 months) |
| Notes |
Source of funding: this work was supported by the Grant‐in‐Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and National Center for Global Health and Medicines, and Post‐Disaster Health Promotion Project in Dhading from The Association of Medical Doctors of Asia in Tokyo, Japan. The funding sources had no role in the study design, implementation of the intervention, data collection and analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report or in the decision to submit the article for publication. Notes on validation of instruments (screening and outcomes): the scales used (CPSS, Depression Self‐Rating Scale) were all validated for use in Nepal. Additional information: none Handling the data: not applicable Prospective trial registration number: NCT03387007 |