Impact of an Interactive Film on Resilience, Wellbeing, and Help-Seeking in School-Aged Youth

NCT ID: NCT06807931

Last Updated: 2025-02-04

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 175 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2021-06-14
• Study Completion Date: 2023-04-29

Brief Summary

The primary aim of this study is to assess the feasibility and acceptability of a randomised controlled trial of an interactive film intervention (commissioned through a North East and North Cumbria Child (NENC) Health & Wellbeing Network partnership and produced by Trylife), on building resilience, enhancing mental wellbeing and help-seeking attitudes for young people (14-18 years) in schools located in deprived areas of the North East and North Cumbria.

Detailed Description

Study Objectives:

• To conduct a three-arm feasibility trial to assess the feasibility of a brief interactive film intervention in school settings with randomisation at school level.
• To explore suitability of parameters of the trial, such as school recruitment, school randomisation, participant recruitment and retention, consent taking, data collection tools, feasibility and acceptability of the intervention, with a view of developing a large-scale trial, as primary outcome.
• To explore views and experiences of young people on acceptability and implementation of the trial and the film intervention through using a qualitative design.
• To gather preliminary data on the effectiveness of a brief interactive film intervention in school settings to enhance resilience, help-seeking attitudes and mental wellbeing in young people, as a secondary outcome.

Design Mixed-methods three arm feasibility cluster randomised controlled trial to assess the feasibility and acceptability of intervention delivery and study procedures, including the following key parameters: school recruitment and randomisation, sample size and participant recruitment and retention, consent taking, data collection tools, data analysis, intervention acceptability and delivery.

Setting Three schools across North East England and North Cumbria will be recruited, matched on size and socio-economic status, measured by percentage of children entitled to free meal.

School recruitment Schools will be recruited by telephoning and emailing head teachers at appropriate points of contact.

Randomisation Each of the three schools will be allocated at random (i.e. computer generated stratified randomisation), to one of the three intervention conditions: control condition, interactive film and interactive film plus support, matched according to the size of the school, socio-economic level, estimated by proportion of students receiving free school meals, and urban or rural location.

Participants Participants will be aged 14-18, years 10-12, at participating schools. Years 11 and 13 will not be targeted because of exam preparation, particularly in the light of COVID-19 disruption. Participants who receive parental consent as appropriate and who provide written informed consent/assent to taking part will be invited to complete baseline measures.

Study Intervention Interactive film

Follow-up Participants will be followed up at 3-months and 6-months.

Qualitative evaluation After the intervention participants will be invited to take part in a focus group (n=6, per school). Focus groups tend to be more comfortable for young people (29). The invitation will be on a separate form accompanying their survey documents. If participants are interested they will provide their contact details, which will be retained separately from the research data. The focus groups will explore young people's views on the trial procedures and the intervention. Interviews (n=6) will be conducted with head teachers and youth workers on acceptability of the trial and intervention.

Analysis Descriptive statistics will be used to provide estimations regarding recruitment, retention, intervention delivery and inform power-calculations for a large-scale trial.

Descriptive statistics will be used to report participants' scores on scales. Two-way ANOVA will be used for preliminary analysis to explore differences between groups, however instead of doing a formal hypothesis testing to prove effectiveness, a 95 % confidence interval will be presented to describe the range of effect.

Thematic content analysis will be used to capture recurring themes, commonalities and patterns in people's perspectives explored in focus groups and interviews.

Conditions

Mental Wellbeing; Resilience; Help-Seeking Behaviour

Study Design

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

Study Groups

Control condition

Participants in this condition received the standard Personal, Social, Health, and Economic (PSHE) Education curriculum provided by the school.

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interactive Film

Participants in this condition engaged in three class sessions wherein they watched the interactive film. The film was delivered both individually and to the whole class and featured decision points, and the viewer's choices influenced the storyline's progression.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Interactive film

Intervention Type: OTHER

An interactive film, co-produced with young people, that aims to provide young people with a virtual experience of making choices and facing consequences in various life scenarios. At key moments the action is paused and the user decides the outcome. The particular film series that was commissioned and included in the trial was 'Jessica's story', which focused on perinatal mental health, as well as many other public health issues relevant to young people, including mental wellbeing, domestic violence, and help-seeking behaviour.

Interactive Film Plus Support

Participants in this condition watched the interactive film as in the previous condition. Additionally, they participated in facilitated discussions led by trained youth workers, focusing on the decisions made in the film and their consequences.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Interactive film

Intervention Type: OTHER

An interactive film, co-produced with young people, that aims to provide young people with a virtual experience of making choices and facing consequences in various life scenarios. At key moments the action is paused and the user decides the outcome. The particular film series that was commissioned and included in the trial was 'Jessica's story', which focused on perinatal mental health, as well as many other public health issues relevant to young people, including mental wellbeing, domestic violence, and help-seeking behaviour.

Interventions

Interactive film

An interactive film, co-produced with young people, that aims to provide young people with a virtual experience of making choices and facing consequences in various life scenarios. At key moments the action is paused and the user decides the outcome. The particular film series that was commissioned and included in the trial was 'Jessica's story', which focused on perinatal mental health, as well as many other public health issues relevant to young people, including mental wellbeing, domestic violence, and help-seeking behaviour.

Intervention Type: OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• In selected Y10 or Y12 class (at start of study) at participating school

Exclusion Criteria

• Lack of parental consent for Y10 students

• Minimum Eligible Age: 14 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

University of Huddersfield

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

University of Cumbria

UNKNOWN

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Newcastle University

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

North East and North Cumbria Child Health and Wellbeing Network

UNKNOWN

Sponsor Role: collaborator

University of Sunderland

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Floor Christie-de Jong

Associate Professor in Public Health for Medicine

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Floor Christie-de Jong

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

University of Sunderland

Locations

University of Sunderland

Sunderland, Sunderland, United Kingdom

Countries

United Kingdom

References

Christie-de Jong F, Walker E, Corlett H, Hardarce C, Soulsby E, Arnott B, Franks K, Ling J, Stephenson J, Azevedo LB. A cluster randomised feasibility trial assessing an interactive film intervention to improve wellbeing of young people in school settings in the North of England. Pilot Feasibility Stud. 2025 Sep 2;11(1):117. doi: 10.1186/s40814-025-01699-1.

Reference Type: DERIVED

PMID: 40898276 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

100471

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id