Let´s Talk About Children Intervention in a School Context

NCT ID: NCT05038280

Last Updated: 2023-11-29

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 100 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2021-09-27
• Study Completion Date: 2023-05-31

Brief Summary

The aim of this study is to examine the fidelity, the perceived benefits, and the effectiveness of the Let's Talk about Children (LTC) -intervention in a school context. The Let's Talk about Children method is a standardised, family-focused intervention aimed to build a shared understanding between parents, children, and teachers to find ways of working together to support the child's everyday life, well-being, learning, and development, both at home and at school. The Let's Talk about Children intervention is used in several different schools in Finland. The study examines the effects of the Let's Talk about Children method on the teacher-student relationship, the trust between teachers and parents and the students', teachers' and parents' well-being. Participants (N=1316 school-children, N=188 school-teachers and N=1316 parents) are recruited and divided into intervention and control groups. The intervention group consists of teachers who use the Let's Talk about Children method in their work and those students and parents who participate in the Let's Talk about Children discussions. The control group includes teachers who do not use the method in their work and students and parents who do not participate in the discussions. The fidelity and perceived benefits of the method are examined in the intervention group. Otherwise, there is two data collection points. The data is collected in intervention and control groups before the intervention and 6 months after the intervention.

Detailed Description

The Let´s Talk about Children Intervention method is one of the Effective Child & Family Methods. The LTC -method was developed as a part of the Functioning Child & Family project co-ordinated by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare. The LTC -intervention includes two steps: Let´s Talk about Children discussion and Let´s Talk about Children network meeting. The method is used in social- and healthcare services, kindergartens and schools but has been studied mainly in the field of social- and healthcare services. The aim of the LTC -work in schools is to support the child's well-being, learning and development in everyday life. The other aim of the LTC -intervention in the school environment is to support teachers and parents in their everyday interactions and activities with children. The LTC is used to build a common comprehensive understanding of the child and his/her situation in school and at home, and to plan actions based on this understanding. The aim is also to build a mutually supportive parent-teacher relationship based on respect. Students, parents and a teacher take part in the discussion. The LTC logbook is used as the framework for the discussions. The LTC -method is based on an ecological, transactional model of child development.

The research questions of the research study are:

Is the intervention delivered as designed? How do teachers/parents experience the Let´s Talk about Children intervention? Does the Let´s Talk about Children intervention have an effect on teacher and student relationship? Does the Let´s Talk about Children intervention have an effect on teacher and parent relationship? Does the Let´s Talk about Children intervention have an effect on students´ well-being? Does the Let´s Talk about Children intervention have an effect on teachers´ well-being at work? Does the Let´s Talk about Children intervention have an effect on parents´ well-being?

Conditions

Children's Wellbeing; Child Overall Health Related Quality of Life; Burnout

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: PREVENTION
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Let's Talk about Children intervention

Teachers, students, and parents in Finland, that take part in the LTC -intervention.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Let's Talk about Children intervention

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

The LTC -intervention includes two steps: Let´s Talk about Children discussion and Let´s Talk about Children network meeting. Students, students´ parents, and a teacher take part in the LTC -discussion. The LTC logbook is used as the framework for the discussions. The LTC discussion depicts the child's ordinary day in all developmental contexts and an action plan is made with parents to enhance the identified strengths and to give support in vulnerabilities. When the action plan is difficult to carry out without further participants, the LTC-Network meeting is planned with parents (and sometimes also the child). LTC-Network meeting provides a forum for case-based cross-sectoral collaboration, including also the families and their social network.

Control group

The control group includes teachers who do not use the method in their work and students and parents who do not participate in the discussions.

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

Let's Talk about Children intervention

The LTC -intervention includes two steps: Let´s Talk about Children discussion and Let´s Talk about Children network meeting. Students, students´ parents, and a teacher take part in the LTC -discussion. The LTC logbook is used as the framework for the discussions. The LTC discussion depicts the child's ordinary day in all developmental contexts and an action plan is made with parents to enhance the identified strengths and to give support in vulnerabilities. When the action plan is difficult to carry out without further participants, the LTC-Network meeting is planned with parents (and sometimes also the child). LTC-Network meeting provides a forum for case-based cross-sectoral collaboration, including also the families and their social network.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• First-grade students
• Students' parents
• First-grade teachers
• Sufficient Finnish language skills

Exclusion Criteria

• Insufficient Finnish language skills

• Minimum Eligible Age: 6 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 8 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

University of Helsinki

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Lotta Allemand

Principal Investigator

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Lotta Allemand

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

University of Helsinki

Locations

University of Helsinki: Faculty of Educational Sciences

Helsinki, , Finland

Countries

Finland

References

Allemand L, Niemela M, Merikukka M, Salmela-Aro K. The "Let's Talk about Children" intervention in a Finnish school context: fidelity, parents' experiences, and perceived benefits. Front Psychol. 2023 Jun 9;14:1183704. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1183704. eCollection 2023.

Reference Type: DERIVED

PMID: 37359866 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

University of Helsinki

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id