scholarly journals Supporting disaster impacted youth : evaluation of a universally delivered online mindfulness intervention

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Toby M. Mills
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Health ◽  
Internalizing Symptoms ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Health Problems ◽  
Health Interventions ◽  
Youth Of Color ◽  
Social And Emotional ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Online Adaptation ◽  
The Impact

There is an increase in youth-reported traumatic stress, youth behavioral health problems, and an upward trend in the prevalence and severity of large-scale disasters within the US. Youth are especially vulnerable to adverse behavioral health problems following a disaster. Many young people do not seek treatment for their behavioral health problems and this discrepancy is magnified by various obstacles to successfully implementing school-based behavioral health interventions to youth impacted by disasters. Youth experiencing internalizing symptoms and youth of color are disproportionately impacted by disaster-related stress and are less likely to receive behavioral health interventions after a disaster. As such, researching the impact of universally delivered programs for this population is warranted. The current study seeks to examine the feasibility and initial efficacy of an online adaptation of the Dynamic Mindfulness program in a quasi-experimental, within-group/ pretest-posttest design, with 44 youth, ages 11-17. The evidence demonstrates that the online adaptation of the selected youth mindfulness program was feasible, acceptable, and related to significant, short-term, pretest to posttest improvements in several of the targeted outcomes and reveals a significant relationship between youth-reported mindfulness and various social and emotional outcomes within study participants, warranting continued inquiry within this scope of research.

scholarly journals Co-creating a large-scale adolescent health survey integrated with access to digital health interventions

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roshini Peiris-John ◽  
Lovely Dizon ◽  
Kylie Sutcliffe ◽  
Kristy Kang ◽  
Theresa Fleming
Keyword(s):  
Adolescent Health ◽  
Health Survey ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Health Interventions ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Health Providers ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
The Impact

Aim This paper describes how we engaged with adolescents and health providers to integrate access to digital health interventions as part of a large-scale secondary school health and wellbeing survey in New Zealand. Methods We conducted nine participatory, iterative co-design sessions involving 29 adolescents, and two workshops with young people (n = 11), digital and health service providers (n = 11) and researchers (n = 9) to gain insights into end-user perspectives on the concept and how best to integrate digital interventions in to the survey. Results Students’ perceived integrating access to digital health interventions into a large-scale youth health survey as acceptable and highly beneficial. They did not want personalized/normative feedback, but thought that every student should be offered all the help options. Participants identified key principles: assurance of confidentiality, usability, participant choice and control, and language. They highlighted wording as important for ease and comfort, and emphasised the importance of user control. Participants expressed that it would be useful and acceptable for survey respondents to receive information about digital help options addressing a range of health and wellbeing topics. Conclusion The methodology of adolescent-practitioner-researcher collaboration and partnership was central to this research and provided useful insights for the development and delivery of adolescent health surveys integrated with digital help options. The results from the ongoing study will provide useful data on the impact of digital health interventions integrated in large-scale surveys, as a novel methodology. Future research on engaging with adolescents once interventions are delivered will be useful to explore benefits over time.

scholarly journals The Effect of Youth Entrepreneurship Education Programs: Two Large-Scale Experimental Studies

SAGE Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 215824402095697
Author(s):  
Gayoung Kim ◽  
Dohyeon Kim ◽  
Woo Jin Lee ◽  
Sunyoung Joung
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Entrepreneurship Education ◽  
Entrepreneurial Intention ◽  
Social Problem Solving ◽  
Entrepreneurial Intentions ◽  
Comparison Groups ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Matched Comparison ◽  
The Impact

Recent years have witnessed the worldwide growth of entrepreneurship education (EE) as entrepreneurship is regarded as the key driver of innovation and economic growth. Most extant studies on EE have focused on its impact on entrepreneurial intentions. However, the application of the same EE measurements for both adults and adolescents has long been criticized; the indices developed for potential adult entrepreneurs may not be suitable for young entrepreneurs, considering the large time gap before they enter the workforce. This study aims to develop appropriate indicators for the assessment of youth EE in Korea and to examine the effectiveness of youth EE. Two large-scale quasi-experimental studies were conducted with pre- and posttest matched-comparison groups for verification. This study suggests six common variables for measuring the impact of youth EE: opportunity discovery, opportunity exploitation, entrepreneurship, creativity capacity, social problem solving, and entrepreneurial intention. The analyses showed that all these indicators positively influenced youth EE. We also proposed practical suggestions for the development of EE programs.

scholarly journals The Impacts of Air Pollution on Mental Health: Evidence from the Chinese University Students

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (18) ◽  
pp. 6734
Author(s):  
Daqing Zu ◽  
Keyu Zhai ◽  
Yue Qiu ◽  
Pei Pei ◽  
Xiaoxian Zhu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Air Pollution ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
University Students ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Depression Scale ◽  
Health Problems ◽  
Chinese University ◽  
The Impact

A growing number of developing countries have experienced worsening air pollution, which has been shown to cause significant health problems. However, few studies have explored the impact of air pollution on the mental health of university students, particularly in the Chinese context. In order to address this gap, through a large-scale cross-sectional survey, this study aims to examine the effects of air pollution on final-year Chinese university undergraduates’ (due to graduate in 2020) mental health by employing multivariable logistic regression. Our findings show that, first, although normal air quality is not strongly associated with lower levels of negative mental health, there is a strong link between poor air quality and higher levels of negative mental health. More specifically, life satisfaction hedonic unhappiness and depression measured by the Centre for Epidemiological Studies’ Depression scale (CES-D) are statistically associated with air pollution. In addition, we also found that gender is a significant factor, as males had more than 1.6 times greater odds of increased mental health problems compared to their female counterparts. Place of birth also plays a significant role in participants’ mental health. Moreover, undergraduates with urban household registration experienced significant levels of hedonic unhappiness and depression on the CES-D scale. Finally, we found that there is an association between respondents’ economic situation and their mental health too. Overall, this study contributes to the research on air pollution management and mental health intervention, particularly in relation to student groups. The undergraduate curriculum should provide more guidance and suggestions on promoting mental health and establishing positive attitudes to life and academic study of the final year students, under the context of air pollution in China.

The Future of CTC and Community-Based Prevention*

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abigail A. Fagan ◽  
J. David Hawkins ◽  
Richard F. Catalano ◽  
David P. Farrington
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Health ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health Problems ◽  
Training System ◽  
Community Based Interventions ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Communities That Care ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
On Line ◽  
The Impact

Although there is growing consensus that community-based prevention efforts have great potential to reduce youth behavioral health problems, few such systems have been well evaluated and demonstrated to produce such outcomes. This chapter begins by reviewing the impact of one such system, Communities That Care. Next, the components of CTC that are responsible for producing desired changes in community norms and processes, and for its effectiveness and cost effectiveness in reducing youth behavioral health problems. The challenges that may be faced by communities in the United States and internationally when implementing CTC and similar community-based interventions are reviewed and solutions to these challenges are provided. The chapter concludes by describing recent developments in the implementation and evaluation of CTC, including the development of an on-line training system and international replications of CTC.

scholarly journals Prospective pragmatic quasi-experimental study to assess the impact and effectiveness of an innovative large-scale public health intervention to foster healthy ageing in place: the SoBeezy program protocol

BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. e043082
Author(s):  
Karine Pérès ◽  
Alfonso Zamudio-Rodriguez ◽  
Jean-Francois Dartigues ◽  
Hélène Amieva ◽  
Stephane Lafitte
Keyword(s):  
Digital Divide ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Public Health Intervention ◽  
Research Programme ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Healthy Ageing ◽  
Older Person ◽  
Ageing In Place ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
The Impact

IntroductionWith the accelerating pace of ageing, healthy ageing has become a major challenge for all societies worldwide. Based on that Healthy Ageing concept proposed by the WHO, the SoBeezy intervention has been designed through an older person-centred and integrated approach. The programme creates the environments that maximise functional ability to enable people to be and do what they value and to stay at home in best possible conditions.Methods and analysisFive levers are targeted: tackling loneliness, restoring feeling of usefulness, finding solutions to face material daily life difficulties, promoting social participation and combating digital divide. Concretely, the SoBeezy programme relies on: (1) a digital intelligent platform available on smartphone, tablet and computer, but also on a voice assistant specifically developed for people with digital divide; (2) a large solidarity network which potentially relies on everyone’s engagement through a participatory intergenerational approach, where the older persons themselves are not only service receivers but also potential contributors; (3) an engagement of local partners and stakeholders (citizens, associations, artisans and professionals). Organised as a hub, the system connects all the resources of a territory and provides to the older person the best solution to meet his demand. Through a mixed, qualitative and quantitative (before/after analyses and compared to controls) approach, the research programme will assess the impact and effectiveness on healthy ageing, the technical usage, the mechanisms of the intervention and conditions of transferability and scalability.Ethics and disseminationInserm Ethics Committee and the Comité Éthique et Scientifique pour les Recherches, les Études et les Évaluations dans le domaine de la Santé approved this research and collected data will be deposited with a suitable data archive.

scholarly journals Co-creating a large-scale adolescent health survey integrated with access to digital health interventions

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roshini Peiris-John ◽  
Lovely Dizon ◽  
Kylie Sutcliffe ◽  
Kristy Kang ◽  
Theresa Fleming
Keyword(s):  
Adolescent Health ◽  
Health Survey ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Health Interventions ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Health Providers ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
The Impact

Aim This paper describes how we engaged with adolescents and health providers to integrate access to digital health interventions as part of a large-scale secondary school health and wellbeing survey in New Zealand. Methods We conducted nine participatory, iterative co-design sessions involving 29 adolescents, and two workshops with young people (n = 11), digital and health service providers (n = 11) and researchers (n = 9) to gain insights into end-user perspectives on the concept and how best to integrate digital interventions in to the survey. Results Students’ perceived integrating access to digital health interventions into a large-scale youth health survey as acceptable and highly beneficial. They did not want personalized/normative feedback, but thought that every student should be offered all the help options. Participants identified key principles: assurance of confidentiality, usability, participant choice and control, and language. They highlighted wording as important for ease and comfort, and emphasised the importance of user control. Participants expressed that it would be useful and acceptable for survey respondents to receive information about digital help options addressing a range of health and wellbeing topics. Conclusion The methodology of adolescent-practitioner-researcher collaboration and partnership was central to this research and provided useful insights for the development and delivery of adolescent health surveys integrated with digital help options. The results from the ongoing study will provide useful data on the impact of digital health interventions integrated in large-scale surveys, as a novel methodology. Future research on engaging with adolescents once interventions are delivered will be useful to explore benefits over time.

The impact of a Stress Control course delivered in partnership with a sports organisation on mental health outcomes in a general population

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Hayes ◽  
Rosarie Crowley ◽  
Yvonne O’Brien ◽  
Geraldine Hannon ◽  
Emma Hennessey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
General Population ◽  
Focus Group ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Health Interventions ◽  
Stress Control ◽  
Mental Health Interventions ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Mental health problems have a significant impact globally in terms of social and economic costs. Increasing access to and uptake of mental health interventions (particularly by men) remains a challenge for service providers. The current study sought to examine the efficacy of a delivering a Stress Control intervention in partnership with a community sporting organisation (the Gaelic Athletic Assocaition, GAA) in ameliorating mental health difficulties in a general population. Measures of anxiety, depression and quality of life were administered before and after the delivery of the 6-week programme. A focus group was conducted afterwards to gather qualitative data on participants’ experiences of the intervention. Statistically significant decreases in depression scores were found following attendance at the course: t (94) = 3.14, p = .002, with a large effect size (0.5) (n = 95). There was an increase in the number of male attendees compared with clinic-based courses. Thematic analysis of the focus group data revealed a number of key themes including increased accessibility in terms of the scale and context of the delivery of the course. Delivering large-scale psychoeducational courses like Stress Control in partnership with the GAA represents a promising avenue for increasing access (for males in particular) to an effective intervention for improving mental health outcomes Key learning aims (1) To gain an understanding of the impact of delivering a large-scale psychological intervention in partnership with a community sports organisation on accessibility and stigma reduction for participants. (2) To become aware of the potential benefits of considering non-clinic-based locations in running public mental health interventions. (3) To understand the key role of the normalisation of the experience of common mental health problems and the impact on intervention uptake.

scholarly journals Interrupted time series analysis using autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models: a guide for evaluating large-scale health interventions

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea L. Schaffer ◽  
Timothy A. Dobbins ◽  
Sallie-Anne Pearson
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Moving Average ◽  
Interrupted Time Series ◽  
Health Interventions ◽  
Policy Intervention ◽  
Arima Models ◽  
Interrupted Time Series Analysis ◽  
Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Background Interrupted time series analysis is increasingly used to evaluate the impact of large-scale health interventions. While segmented regression is a common approach, it is not always adequate, especially in the presence of seasonality and autocorrelation. An Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) model is an alternative method that can accommodate these issues. Methods We describe the underlying theory behind ARIMA models and how they can be used to evaluate population-level interventions, such as the introduction of health policies. We discuss how to select the shape of the impact, the model selection process, transfer functions, checking model fit, and interpretation of findings. We also provide R and SAS code to replicate our results. Results We illustrate ARIMA modelling using the example of a policy intervention to reduce inappropriate prescribing. In January 2014, the Australian government eliminated prescription refills for the 25 mg tablet strength of quetiapine, an antipsychotic, to deter its prescribing for non-approved indications. We examine the impact of this policy intervention on dispensing of quetiapine using dispensing claims data. Conclusions ARIMA modelling is a useful tool to evaluate the impact of large-scale interventions when other approaches are not suitable, as it can account for underlying trends, autocorrelation and seasonality and allows for flexible modelling of different types of impacts.

scholarly journals Music and Talent: An experimental project for personal development and well-being through music

2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 156-174
Author(s):  
Francisco Cuadrado
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Personal Development ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social And Emotional ◽  
Self Confidence ◽  
Emotional Relationships ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Experimental Project ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Impact

“Music and Talent” is an educational project for children between 3 and 9 years old. The aim of the project is to use music and musical intelligence as resources for enhancing important skills in social and cognitive development. These skills are self-esteem, self-confidence, motivation, social and emotional relationships, and well-being. The first part of the article describes the project’s foundation, organization and developed activities. The second part of the article presents the results of two exploratory studies that have been carried out to evaluate some of the developed activities. Study 1 measured the impact of an active music language learning methodology on the “originality” dimension of creativity. A quasi-experimental design was adopted, with experimental and control groups tested pre and post the musical intervention. Findings show a statistically significant increase in the originality dimension in the experimental group. Study 2 measured the children’s self-efficacy in relation to their participation in the Music and Talent project, with positive results. An exploratory study was adopted as the research design, using a validated 10 steps Likert questionnaire with 15 items.

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