Strengthening Health and Insight in New Educators

Official title

Healthy Minds for Pre-Service Teachers

Overview

Teachers are at notable risk for depression and anxiety. The present study tests an app-based mindfulness intervention for teachers in their final year of training with the goal of preventing the deterioration of their mental health during the transition into the classroom. The project will strengthen the research environment at the University of Alabama and will involve undergraduate research assistants in each step of the research process.

Detailed description

Mental health concerns in teachers have escalated since the onset of the pandemic, and the deterioration of mental health can begin as early as the teacher training period. Accessible and scalable programs that prepare teachers for the stress of the profession are urgently needed to prevent the deterioration of mental health and its attendant consequences. The goal of this longitudinal project is to test the feasibility and acceptability, utility, and candidate mechanisms of an accessible, mobile health, mindfulness-based intervention, the Healthy Minds Program (HMP), to equip teachers in training ("pre-service teachers"; i.e., university students majoring in education) with skills necessary to maintain their mental health as they transition into the classroom. The project addresses three specific aims. Aim 1: a) Assess the feasibility and acceptability of the HMP for pre-service teachers and b) identify barriers and facilitators to program acceptability. Aim 2: Determine the utility of the HMP for preventing depression and anxiety (main outcomes) and turnover intentions (secondary outcome). Aim 3: Examine HMP effects on candidate mechanisms, and the effect of mechanisms on outcomes. The results of this project will provide critical insight into the potential for the HMP to scale up for widespread use in pre-service teacher training programs. Importantly, the project will provide a unique opportunity for undergraduate research at the University of Alabama, and will strengthen the research environment by involving undergraduate research assistants in each step of the research process.

Interventions

• Behavioral Healthy Minds Program
  Participants in this arm engage with the Healthy Minds Program app/

Primary outcome measures

• Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Depression - Short Form 8b [Time frame: Participants will report on depression at baseline, post-intervention (3 months after baseline), 3-month follow-up , and 12-month follow-up.]
• Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Anxiety - Short Form 7a [Time frame: Participants will report on anxiety at baseline, post-intervention (3 months after baseline), 3-month follow-up, and 12-month follow-up.]

Secondary outcome measures (1)

• Turnover Intentions [Time frame: Participants will report turnover intentions at 3-month follow-up, and 12-month follow-up.]

Eligibility criteria

Inclusion criteria

• Students in Block 3 will be invited to participate in the study.

Exclusion criteria

• Students who are not in Block 3 will be excluded. Participants experiencing suicidal ideations at baseline and deemed via the clinical risk assessment procedure to be at moderate or high risk of suicide will be excluded from the study after baseline, and prior to randomization.

Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.

Healthy volunteers: Yes

Study design

Allocation

Randomized

Model

Parallel assignment

Masking

Open label

Primary purpose

Prevention

Study locations

United States · 1 center

• University of Alabama — Tuscaloosa

Identifiers

NCT: NCT06745934 · 24-01-7242 · R15MH134225

Primary sources (government registries)

• ClinicalTrials.gov (US NIH)

View this study on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗