Clinical trial NCT03322397: Adolescent Acts of Kindness Intervention
Official title: Study of Daily Life and Health
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Inflammation
Mental Health Wellness 1
Keywords: adolescence
immune function
gene expression
psychological well-being
social connection
kindness
Lead sponsor: University of California, Los Angeles
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2017-10-26
Enrollment: 97
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 14
Maximum age (years): 17
Standard ages: CHILD
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: 90 participants will randomly be assigned to one of three interventions. Participants will complete a 4-week intervention. All outcomes will be measured before and after the intervention, and some psychological measures will be collected weekly throughout the intervention.
Primary purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE

Brief summary: Adolescents will complete a 4-week intervention, during which they will either complete a kind act for others, complete a kind act for themselves, or report their daily activities three days per week. Psychological and physiological measures will be indexed before and after the intervention.

Detailed description: Stress and early adversity have been found to influence immune function via enhanced expression of the conserved transcriptional response to adversity (CTRA) genetic profile. Expression of this genetic profile was reduced in adults who completed a prosocial behavior intervention. This project aims to implement this intervention in adolescents. 90 high school students will be recruited and assigned to one of three groups (30/group). Participants will either conduct 3 acts of kindness for themselves, conduct 3 acts of kindness for others, or report about their day 3 times per week for 4 weeks. During this intervention, they will receive text messages 3 days per week instructing them to complete their respective act. Participants will provide a brief description of this act that evening, as well as complete brief surveys at the end of the week for each week of the intervention. Participants will come into the lab twice, once before and once after the 4-week intervention. During these lab sessions participants will complete survey measures, have their heart rate measured, and have a blood draw conducted by a trained phlebotomist. Participants' parents will also complete a brief survey to provide demographic information and an idea of what prosocial behaviors participants witnessed in their home. The investigators will use these data to assess the effects of prosocial behavior on health and the psychological mechanisms underlying these effects. At the second study visit, participants will be given the opportunity to donate part of their study payment to a charity to measure prosociality. Any donations will be vetted with the psychology department's accounting group prior to making any donations in the university's name. Scott Monatlik, Director, Tax and Information Practices, at smonatlik@finance.ucla.edu or (310) 794-6724 will be contacted and information regarding the appropriate steps to take to ensure that the donation is made to an acceptable charity prior to any donations. Actual helping behavior (donations) is measured to provide an ecologically valid experimental evaluation of prosociality rather than traditional metrics of computerized, fictional giving. Conceptual frameworks from developmental and health psychology guide the hypothesis that prosocial behavior will influence adolescents.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Between the ages of 14-17

Exclusion Criteria:

* None

Primary outcomes:
measure: Average Positive Affect
timeFrame: Weekly over 5 weeks
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Inflammatory Gene Expression
timeFrame: Baseline and one-week post intervention (elapsed time of 5 weeks)
measure: Average Psychological Flourishing
timeFrame: Baseline and one-week post intervention (elapsed time of 5 weeks)
measure: Average Negative Affect
timeFrame: Weekly over 5 weeks
Other outcomes:
measure: Average Stress
timeFrame: Weekly over 5 weeks
measure: Sleep Quality
timeFrame: Weekly over 5 weeks
measure: Inflammatory Composite
timeFrame: Baseline and one-week post intervention (elapsed time of 5 weeks)
measure: Respiratory Sinus Arrythmia (RSA)
timeFrame: Baseline and one-week post intervention (elapsed time of 5 weeks)
measure: Average Social connection
timeFrame: Weekly over 5 weeks
measure: Donation
timeFrame: 5 weeks
Locations:
city: Los Angeles
country: United States
facility: Adolescent Development Lab at UCLA
state: California
Study officials:
affiliation: Professor
name: Andrew Fuligni, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: