Promoting Mental Health in Young Children - a Dialogue Based Approach in Kindergartens

Not Applicable

Recruiting

• Conditions: Child Development; Child Behavior
• Interventions: Other: Traditional parent-teacher meeting; Other: Dialogue Based Early Detection

• Registration Number: NCT06471816
• Lead Sponsor: Haukeland University Hospital

Brief Summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if the novel Dialogue Based Early Detection (DBED) method can prevent impaired mental health in kindergarten children. It will also learn about the screening properties of DBED to identify children with impaired mental health, if DBED facilitates early interventions, and if DBED is well accepted and sustainable in an ordinary kindergarten setting.

The main questions it aims to answer are:

* Do children in kindergartens where DBED is implemented develop better mental health scores than children in kindergarten where DBED is not implemented?

* How well identifies DBED kindergarten children with impaired mental health compared to a traditional screening instrument (the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire)?

* What is the impact of DBED on activation of interventions for mental health problems?

* What is the social validity of DBED?

Researchers will compare outcomes in kindergartens where DBED is implemented with outcomes in kindergartens where it's not.

* During the last three years of kindergarten attendance participants (parents of kindergarten children) in the intervention kindergartens will take part in the biannual DBED parent-teacher meetings, while participants in the control kindergartens will take part in traditional parent-teacher meetings.

* Twice a year all participants will answer questionnaires of the child's mental health and parental stress during the follow-up period (3 years in kindergarten and 2 first years in school).

* Participants in the intervention kindergartens will answer user satisfaction questionnaires after every parent-teacher meeting.

* The kindergarten teachers will report on type and time of supportive interventions for each participating child during the follow-up period in kindergarten.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2024-01-01
• Status Verified: 2024-06
• Study First Submitted: 2024-06-18
• Study First Submitted QC: 2024-06-22
• Last Update Submitted: 2024-06-22
• Study First Posted: 2024-06-24
• Last Update Posted: 2024-06-24
• Primary Completion: 2029-06-30
• Study Completion: 2029-06-30

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: RECRUITING
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 200

Inclusion Criteria

• Attendance in kindergarten
• Inclusion during the first half-year of the third last year in kindergarten

Exclusion Criteria

• Parents don't communicate in Norwegian or English

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Control kindergartens	Traditional parent-teacher meeting	Participants (parents of kindergarten children) will take part in traditional parent-teacher meetings.
Intervention kindergartens	Dialogue Based Early Detection	Participants (parents of kindergarten children) will take part in the biannual DBED parent-teacher meetings.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Total difficulties score of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)	The SDQ is completed by both kindergarten teacher and each parent twice a year during the three last year of attendance of the child in kindergarten, continued by the parents during the first two years in school	The SDQ has five scales (scored 0-10); emotional problems, conduct problems, hyperactivity, peer problems and pro-social scale. The scales are combined (excluding the pro-social scale) into a 'total difficulties' score (0-40).

Trial Locations

Locations (3)

Eventus Barnehage AS; 🇳🇴 Bergen, Norway

Øygarden municipality; 🇳🇴 Straume, Norway

Haukeland University Hospital; 🇳🇴 Bergen, Norway