Clinical trial NCT06227403: Leadership, Engagement, and Youth Activism Program with Mindfulness (LEAP)
Official title: Can a Youth Civic Leadership, Engagement, and Mindfulness Program Reduce Structural Racism and Support Functioning and Wellbeing for Youth of Color?
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Adolescent Behavior
Mental Health Wellness 1
Keywords: mindfulness
civic engagement
youth leadership
youth wellbeing
Lead sponsor: Boston University Charles River Campus
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Massachusetts General Hospital
name: University of Illinois at Chicago
name: Utah State University
First posted: 2024-01-26
Enrollment: 49
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 14
Maximum age (years): 18
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: Randomized Control Trial
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief summary: The current study tests the feasibility and effectiveness of a youth intervention designed to provide meaningful leadership opportunities and to address barriers to equity, through the acquisition of civic leadership and development skills as well as mindfulness practice, LEAP-M: Leadership, Engagement, and youth Activism Program with Mindfulness.

The goal of our proposal is to determine whether the Leadership, Engagement, and youth Activism Program with Mindfulness.(LEAP-M) curriculum, which was developed with youth of color, is a feasible and effective intervention for fostering civic leadership, civic development, and wellbeing. We seek to understand whether LEAP-M can support wellbeing for youth of color as a strategy to combat structural racism at the school- and neighborhood-levels, increase youth mental, emotional, and behavioral (MEB) health and decrease health disparities in youth of color.

Detailed description: The LEAP-M study will determine whether a 14-session program designed to provide leadership and mindfulness skills to youth of color is an effective and feasible intervention. The curriculum consists of 14 two-hour sessions delivered after school. The comparison group will take part in EnvisionIT, a college and career readiness program designed for students in grades 6 through 12. EnvisionIT aims to prepare students with essential transition skills, digital literacy, and college and career readiness. The comparison group will also have 14 two-hour group sessions. Both LEAP-M and EnvisionIT will be delivered by trained facilitators. All participants in LEAP-M and EnvisionIT will be assessed at two time points assessing program outcomes; facilitators will also complete interviews post-intervention and provide feedback on data fidelity and acceptability following each session. This record reports on the UG3 pilot phase and will be amended for a UH3 phase.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

• Adolescents ages 14-18 in grades 9-12 enrolled in collaborating sites, either at Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO) in Boston, MA, or University of Illinois/Chicago Public School.

Exclusion Criteria:

* Adolescents who are not available to commit to the intervention schedule.
* Adolescents who are not in grades 9-12.
* Parents/guardians with preferred language other than English or Spanish.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Mental Health Continuum - Short Form
timeFrame: Baseline, 2-3 months
measure: Engagement, Perseverance, Optimism, Connectedness, and Happiness (EPOCH) measure of adolescent wellbeing
timeFrame: Baseline, 2-3 months
measure: Social Emotional Health Survey: Belief in Self-Domain
timeFrame: Baseline, 2-3 months
measure: Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire
timeFrame: Baseline, 2-3 months
measure: Self-Rated Health
timeFrame: Baseline, 2-3 months
measure: Student Career Construction Inventory
timeFrame: Baseline, 2-3 months
measure: Vocational Skills Self-Efficacy
timeFrame: Baseline, 2-3 months
measure: Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Literacy Pretest-Posttest
timeFrame: Baseline, 2-3 months
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Chicago
country: United States
facility: University of Illinois Chicago
state: Illinois
city: Boston
country: United States
facility: METCO
state: Massachusetts
Study officials:
affiliation: Boston University
name: Jennifer G Green, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
affiliation: Massachusetts General Hospital
name: Mario Cruz-Gonzalez, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: