PLAYwithHEART: PLAY With Happiness, Engagement, Acceptance, and Respect With Your Team

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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This investigation aims to apply and test the feasibility of a structured Program for young athletes. PLAYwithHEART is a program for promoting acceptance and cooperation skills in adolescent athletes. This group application program comprises eight weekly sessions and aims to decrease levels of sport anxiety, and increase the psychological quality of life of young athletes, by promoting skills inherent to an affiliation mentality (mindfulness, acceptance, compassion, and social safeness), as an alternative to a social ranking mentality (based on maladaptive processes, such as shame and self-criticism), to deal with the challenges and demands of the sport context.

Detailed Description
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The sample will include young athletes of different sports with ages ranged 12 to 18 years old. The principal investigator will recruit participants through contact with different sports clubs in Portugal. Athletes who demonstrate interest will go through a Screening interview (previously authorized by your legal guardian) by a licensed psychologist that aims explain the structure and arms of the investigation, to collect demographic data, and whether the athlete meets the inclusion criteria for the study. Athletes who meet the inclusion criteria and demonstrate interest in participating in the study, will sign an informed consent. All ethical requirements for research with humans are guaranteed. Afterwards, participants will be allocated in two groups (experimental and control group). Additionally, the experimental group will enroll in the PLAYwithHEART programme, also provided by a licensed psychologist and a co-therapist. Both groups will concurrently complete a protocol of self-report measures (to measure: a) psychological processes; b) quality of life and sports anxiety. These assessments will occur in three different times: before the start of the PLAYwithHEART programme (M0), after the final session of the programme (M1), and 6 months after that (M3).

Official Title
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PLAYwithHEART: Development and Effectiveness Study of a Program for the Promotion of Acceptance and Cooperation Skills for Adolescent Athletes

Conditions
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Adolescents, Athletes

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: PLAYwithHEART Programme for adolescent athletes


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: adolescent competitive athletes presentation of the informed consent signed by the participant and respetive legal guardian availability to participate in the 8 sessions of the PLAYwithHEART Programme inexistence of cognitive difficulties that interfere in completing self-response measures not being under psychological / psychiatric appointments Exclusion Criteria: no presentation of the informed consent signed by the participant and respetive legal guardian unavailability to participate in the 8 sessions of the PLAYwithHEART Programme existence of cognitive difficulties that interfere in completing self-response measures being under psychological / psychiatric appointments

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 12 Years
Maximum Age: 18 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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No

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
Allocation: Non-Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: Experimental<br>PLAYwithHEART Programme is a manualized mindfulness, acceptance, and compassionate-based group intervention for adolescent competitive athletes. It included 8 weekly group sessions, 45 minutes each, run in small groups (ranging from 8 to 12 participants). Participants of this group complete also self-report measures. | Behavioral: PLAYwithHEART Programme for adolescent athletes<br>* PLAYwithHEART programme for adolescent athletes is an intervention programme based on Mindfulness, Acceptance, and Compassion for adolescent athletes<br>|
| No Intervention: Control<br>Participants of control group do not receive the intervention Programme (PLAYwithHEART), nor any other program, and only complete self-report measures. | |

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Changes in Quality of Life | Measured by the The KIDSCREEN-10 quality of life measure for children and adolescents - higher levels mean a better outcome | From baseline to 6-months follow-up | 
| Changes in competitive anxiety | Measured by the Sport Anxiety Scale (SAS-2) - lower levels mean a better outcome | From baseline to 6-months follow-up | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Changes in Mindfulness | Measured by the Children´s Acceptance and Mindfulness Measure (CAMM) - higher levels mean a better outcome | From baseline to 6-months follow-up | 
| Changes in Psychological Flexibility | Measured by the Avoidance and Fusion Questionnaire for Youth (AFQ-Y) - lower levels mean a better outcome | From baseline to 6-months follow-up | 
| Changes in Self-compassion | Measured by the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS-A) - higher levels mean a better outcome | From baseline to 6-months follow-up | 
| Changes in Social Safeness | Measured by the Social Safeness and Pleasure Scale (SSPS-A) - higher levels mean a better outcome | From baseline to 6-months follow-up | 
| Changes in shame | Measured by the External and Internal Shame Scale for adolescents (EISS-A). Lower scores mean a better outcome | From baseline to 6-months follow-up | 
| Changes in self-criticism | Measured by the Forms of self-criticizing/attacking and self-reassuring scale (FSCRS-A) - lower scores in self-criticising mean a better outcome | From baseline to 6-months follow-up |