Abstract
We report the findings of the first randomised trial of Bounce Back, a brief, school-based group intervention for children with emergent mental health difficulties, whose aim is to improve their understanding of resilience and well-being, support them to build their confidence and friendships, and provide practical skills to make positive behaviour changes. 24 primary schools (N = 326 children) were randomly allocated to deliver the intervention or continue practice as usual in a waitlist design. Children in the intervention arm of the trial worked in groups of up to 15, supported by a trained youth practitioner, over ten weekly sessions that were delivered during the school day for up to an hour. Measures of emotional symptoms, behavioural difficulties, problem-solving, and self-esteem were recorded at baseline and post-intervention follow-up. Routinely collected session attendance data were used as a proxy for intervention compliance. Intent to treat analyses revealed that Bounce Back produced significant reductions in emotional symptoms (d = − 0.21). Furthermore, complier average causal effect analyses established that intervention compliance modified this treatment effect, such that children who attended more sessions accrued greater reductions in symptoms (moderate compliance d = − 0.54; high compliance d = − 0.61). There were no intervention effects for any of the other outcomes. Collectively, these findings provide robust preliminary evidence of the efficacy of Bounce Back.
Trial registration: ISRCTN11162672
Data availability
Available on request from Elizabeth.Ville@newham.gov.uk.
Code availability
Available on request from the authors.
Notes
Only schools that were participating in the HeadStart programme in Newham were eligible to join the trial because the Bounce Back intervention is funded through the said programme.
Participating schools were each assigned a random seven-digit number created using a random number generator in Microsoft Excel. They were subsequently ordered by the randomly generated numbers from low to high. The first 12 schools in the list were allocated to the intervention arm, and the remaining 12 to the control arm.
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Acknowledgements
The data used in this study were collected as part of the HeadStart learning program. The authors are therefore grateful for the work of the wider research teams at the Anna Freud Centre and the University of Manchester for their role in coordinating the evaluation, as well as collecting and managing the data. The authors also acknowledge the National Pupil Database from which demographic data were obtained. We are extremely grateful to all students who took part in this study, as well as the schools for their help in recruiting them. Finally, we would like to thank Valdeep Gill, Elizabeth Ville and the Newham HeadStart team for providing us with the data for this evaluation.
Funding
The data used in this study were collected as part of the HeadStart learning program and supported by funding from the National Lottery Community Fund, grant R118420. The funders did not seek to influence any aspect of the secondary analysis reported in this study. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not reflect the views of the National Lottery Community Fund. This research was supported by a grant from the National Lottery Community Fund, using data from the HeadStart Evaluation.
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The study was approved by the University College London ethics committee (reference 6299/004) and performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments.
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Humphrey, N., Panayiotou, M. Bounce Back: randomised trial of a brief, school-based group intervention for children with emergent mental health difficulties. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 31, 205–210 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-020-01612-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-020-01612-6