Journey of Hope in Appalachia: Supporting Resilience in the Region's Youth

NCT ID: NCT04096937

Last Updated: 2022-11-25

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Total Enrollment: 42 participants
• Study Classification: OBSERVATIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2021-05-01
• Study Completion Date: 2022-03-22

Brief Summary

Rural youth have heightened exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACES) such as poverty, social isolation, chronic hunger, and drug use in the home. These threats can lead to downstream problems with emotion regulation, substance abuse, and heightened vulnerability to chronic disease. Resilience is the capacity to adapt positively in the face of such disadvantage. Youth resilience interventions can buffer the negative effects of ACES. Unfortunately, rural schools and other youth-serving agencies often have inadequate capacity to provide such interventions. Thus, there is a critical need to develop cost-effective, sustainable, and culturally-relevant youth resilience interventions that can be delivered by trained personnel with dedicated time and resources. WVU, UK, and Save The Children have a long-term goal to establish a sustained community-engaged research partnership to promote resilience in Appalachian youth. This is a community-based participatory research (CBPR)-guided study being conducted for the purpose of developing a culturally relevant, intervention to promote Appalachian youth resilience. The intervention, called Journey of Hope in Appalachia (JOHA), has as it's starting point Save The Children's evidence-based Journey of Hope (JOH) program that targets youth experiencing acute stress from natural disasters and similar events. This program will be culturally adapted to promote resilience among Appalachian youth experiencing ACES. JOHA will incorporate positive aspects of Appalachian culture (e.g., storytelling, theater, music) and will be designed for sustainability and eventual dissemination by Save through the Appalachian Translational Research Network (ATRN) and other regional Networks.

Conditions

Adverse Childhood Experiences

Study Design

• Observational Model Type: ECOLOGIC_OR_COMMUNITY
• Study Time Perspective: PROSPECTIVE

Study Groups

Appalachian adults

Adults in Appalachia invested in well-being of youth.

Focus groups

Intervention Type: OTHER

Focus groups will be conducted with adult stakeholders and with youth in Appalachia. Feedback from the focus groups will guide cultural tailoring of the Journey of Hope in Appalachia intervention for use in a later phase.

Appalachian youth

Youth from 7th through 12th grade.

Focus groups

Intervention Type: OTHER

Focus groups will be conducted with adult stakeholders and with youth in Appalachia. Feedback from the focus groups will guide cultural tailoring of the Journey of Hope in Appalachia intervention for use in a later phase.

Interventions

Focus groups

Focus groups will be conducted with adult stakeholders and with youth in Appalachia. Feedback from the focus groups will guide cultural tailoring of the Journey of Hope in Appalachia intervention for use in a later phase.

Intervention Type: OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Youth or adults who are residents of Appalachia
• Able to read and speak in English

Exclusion Criteria

• Youth or adults who are not residents of Appalachia Kentucky or West Virginia
• Children under the age of 10

• Minimum Eligible Age: 10 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 99 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

West Virginia University

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Gia Mudd

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Gia Mudd

Associate Professor

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Gia Mudd-Martin, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

University of Kentucky

Locations

University of Kentucky, Center of Excellence in Rural Health

Hazard, Kentucky, United States

West Virginia University

Morgantown, West Virginia, United States

Countries

United States

Other Identifiers

46776

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id