Refinement and Validation of an Awareness Training Program
Condition: Awareness Training
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The goal of the proposed project is to provide the Army with a brief, well-validated,
      internet-based training program for enhancing Awareness Training and resilience skills. This
      project will address the needs outlined for the Military Operational Medicine Research
      Program, particularly with regard to enhancing Psychological Health and Resilience. The
      fundamental approach of the project directly addresses the need to "develop psychological
      resilience among Service members and families to promote well-being and prevent behavioral
      health outcomes." Addressing this need is crucial, as military personnel are often required
      to serve under dangerous and emotionally stressful conditions. Prolonged stress or exposure
      to very intense life threatening experiences, such as those encountered in combat or other
      hazardous duty deployments can increase the risk of developing mental health problems
      including depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). One possible way to
      minimize the effects of these stressful experiences on Service members is to strengthen their
      emotional flexibility, adaptability, and capacity to cope with adversity before they find
      themselves faced with such situations. To fill this need, the investigators propose to
      provide the military with a web-based program that focuses on enhancing Awareness Training, a
      core set of trainable awareness skills that collectively include the capacity to understand,
      perceive, control, and use emotions effectively.

      While the previous pilot program was successful in some ways, it needs further research
      before it is ready for widespread use. The investigators therefore propose to build upon the
      existing strengths already in the program and redesign the weaker modules to be more
      effective. Over the course of a four-year study, the investigators propose to develop this
      program. The proposed Awareness Training program is brief, web-based, easily accessible, and
      sufficiently focused such that it could be completed by large numbers of military personnel
      with minimal time burden, leading to rapid enhancement of awareness skills. Such a program
      could have a significant effect in promoting resilience, interpersonal functioning, and brain
      health among Service members and their families, while reducing the likelihood of mental
      health problems among those returning from exposure to potentially traumatic experiences.

      The central hypothesis is that a set of well designed and targeted training modules
      addressing core awareness ability domains will significantly enhance measured awareness
      skills, will translate into improved performance on militarily relevant metrics, and will
      lead to better mental and emotional health, as well as well being during stressful situations
      and subsequent cognitive processing.
    


Intervention name(s): Internal Awareness Training Program; External Awareness Training Program
Intervention type(s): Other; Other
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Double (Participant, Outcomes Assessor)
Primary purpose: Other