RECRUITING

Intervention to Enhance Coping and Help-seeking Among Youth in Foster Care

Study Overview

This clinical trial focuses on testing the efficacy of different digital interventions to promote re-engagement in cancer-related long-term follow-up care for adolescent and young adult (AYA) survivors of childhood cancer.

Description

This study will deploy a scalable secondary prevention program that leverages existing foster youth transition services to improve mental health functioning and service use before and after exiting foster care. Our short-term objective is to remotely test a group intervention called Stronger Youth Networks and Coping (SYNC) that targets cognitive schemas influencing stress responses, including mental health help-seeking and service engagement, among foster youth with behavioral health risk. SYNC aims to increase youth capacity to appraise stress and regulate emotional responses, to flexibly select adaptive coping strategies, and to promote informal and formal help-seeking as an effective coping strategy. The proposed aims will establish whether the 10-module program engages the targeted proximal mechanisms with a signal of efficacy on clinically-relevant outcomes, and whether a fully-powered randomized control trial (RCT) of SYNC is feasible in the intended service context. Our first aim is to refine our SYNC curriculum and training materials, prior to testing SYNC in a remote single-arm trial with two cohorts of 8-10 Oregon foster youth aged 16-20 (N=26). Our second aim is to conduct a remote two-arm individually-randomized group treatment trial with Oregon foster youth aged 16-20 with indicated behavioral health risk (N=80) to examine: (a) intervention group change on proximal mechanisms of coping self-efficacy and help-seeking attitudes, compared to services-as-usual at post-intervention and 6-month follow-up: and (b) association between the mechanisms and targeted outcomes, including emotional regulation, coping behaviors, mental health service use, and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and PTSD. Our third aim is to refine and standardize the intervention and research protocol for an effectiveness trial, including confirming transferability with national stakeholders.

Official Title

Pilot Testing an Intervention to Enhance Coping and Increase Mental Health Help-seeking Among Transition-age Youth in Foster Care

Quick Facts

Study Start:2024-04-22
Study Completion:2026-08-01
Study Type:Not specified
Phase:Not Applicable
Enrollment:Not specified
Status:RECRUITING

Study ID

NCT06019377

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Ages Eligible for Study:16 Years to 20 Years
Sexes Eligible for Study:ALL
Accepts Healthy Volunteers:No
Standard Ages:CHILD, ADULT
Inclusion CriteriaExclusion Criteria
  1. * Eligible to receive federally-funded transition-related services in Oregon (ages 16-20 and in foster care at least 90 days after they turned age 14),
  2. * Indicated behavioral health risk. Behavioral health risk is indicated by child welfare administrative indicators of lifetime behavioral health need or service involvement (DSM diagnoses, psychotropic medication, emotional-behavioral disability, congregate care/residential placement)
  1. * Inability to actively participate in the intervention, including you who are: non-English speaking, significantly developmentally disabled, or where participation is otherwise contraindicated (e.g., youth is in crisis, youth is in a placement that will not allow for participation)

Contacts and Locations

Study Contact

Jennifer Blakeslee, PhD,MSW,BS
CONTACT
5037258389
jblakes@pdx.edu
Rebecca A Miller, M.Ed, BA
CONTACT
ramiller@pdx.edu

Principal Investigator

Jennifer Blakeslee, PhD,MSW,BS
PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
Portland State University

Study Locations (Sites)

Portland State University
Portland, Oregon, 97201
United States

Collaborators and Investigators

Sponsor: Portland State University

  • Jennifer Blakeslee, PhD,MSW,BS, PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR, Portland State University

Study Record Dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Registration Dates

Study Start Date2024-04-22
Study Completion Date2026-08-01

Study Record Updates

Study Start Date2024-04-22
Study Completion Date2026-08-01

Terms related to this study

Keywords Provided by Researchers

  • Mental health
  • Help-seeking
  • Coping
  • Youth
  • Foster care
  • Near-peer
  • Independent living

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

  • Adolescent Behavior
  • Psychosocial Functioning
  • Coping Behavior
  • Help-Seeking Behavior
  • Utilization, Health Care
  • Depression
  • Anxiety
  • Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic
  • Emotion Regulation
  • Child Welfare