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The Evaluation of Boost Camp: A Universal School-Based Prevention Program Targeting Adolescent Emotion Regulation Skills

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Abstract

The transition from childhood to adolescence often elicits psychological problems, which provides great opportunities for organizing universal, school-based prevention programs. The present study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of Boost Camp, a new prevention program targeting young adolescents’ emotion regulation skills. Junior high school adolescents (n = 347; 53% female, Mage = 11.92) from six schools were randomly allocated to the intervention condition (n = 139) or to the control condition (n = 208), using a clustered randomized controlled design. Program integrity was evaluated by adolescents, trainers, and independent coders. Questionnaires were used to assess primary outcomes (emotion regulation and emotional wellbeing), secondary outcomes (school achievement, bullying experiences, and psychological stigmatization), and moderators (gender, psychological problems, and executive functioning). Assessment of the main outcome variables was conducted at baseline, post intervention, and three as well as six months’ follow-up. Qualitative analyses showed a good program adherence and positive evaluations of the program. Furthermore, main results demonstrated that Boost Camp had short-term effects on depressive symptoms, self-esteem, indirect bullying experiences, and psychological stigmatization. However, no significant effects on emotion regulation were found and all beneficial effects immediately after the intervention disappeared at follow-up. Program effects were not moderated by gender, executive functioning impairments, or symptoms of psychopathology. These findings demonstrate that Boost Camp is feasible as a universal, school-based program and that it has the potential to enhance wellbeing outcomes, at least short-term and when implemented by external trainers. Several suggestions to optimize the program in order to obtain long-term effects are included in the discussion section.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) [GWO17/PRJ/482] and the Special Research Fund Ghent University (BOF) [BOF.24J.2016.0007.02)].

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  1. Department of Developmental, Personality and Social Psychology, Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan 2, 9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Brenda Volkaert, Laura Wante, Elisa Boelens & Caroline Braet

  2. Department of Data-Analysis, Henri Dunantlaan 2, 9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Tom Loeys

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Correspondence to Brenda Volkaert.

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Ethics Approval

All procedures performed in current study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the ethical committee of Ghent University and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Consent to Participate

As the prevention program was part of the class curriculum, all first-graders from the participating schools joined the program, but parents and children had to give active consent for including their data in the study and were free to withdraw their consent at any point.

Conflict of interest

CB is co-author of the official Dutch translation of both the CDI and the FEEL-KJ and received royalties for this. Other authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Volkaert, B., Wante, L., Loeys, T. et al. The Evaluation of Boost Camp: A Universal School-Based Prevention Program Targeting Adolescent Emotion Regulation Skills. School Mental Health 14, 440–453 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-021-09478-y

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