COPE/Healthy Lifestyles for Teens: A School-Based RCT

Summary

The prevention and treatment of obesity and mental health disorders in adolescence are two major public health problems in the United States today. To address the increasing incidence and adverse health outcomes associated with both obesity and mental health problems, a theory-based 15 session intervention program entitled COPE (Creating Opportunities for Personal Empowerment)/ Healthy Lifestyles TEEN(Thinking, Feeling, Emotions \& Exercise), will be delivered within high school health classes in order to improve the physical and mental health outcomes of 800 culturally diverse adolescents (14 to 16 years of age).

Conditions

• Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors
• Depressive/Anxiety Symptoms

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

COPE/Healthy Lifestyles TEEN Program.

The COPE Program is the intervention curriculum delivered to one arm of the study. Each session of COPE contains 15 to 20 minutes of physical activity (e.g., walking, dancing), not as an exercise training program, but rather to build beliefs/confidence in the teens that they can engage in and sustain some level of physical activity on a regular basis. Those healthy lifestyle intervention programs that have employed exercise interventions only have not led to sustained changes in healthy lifestyle behaviors. Our program is designed to enhance healthy lifestyle behaviors and sustain them because life-long cognitive-behavioral skills are taught in the program. Because the COPE TEEN program is completely manualized for the teens and instructors, it can be easily implemented by health teachers in high school settings.

BEHAVIORAL

Healthy Teens Attention Control Program

The Healthy Teens program is an attention control program that will assist in ruling out alternative explanations of the mechanism by which the intervention works. It will be standardized like the COPE program to insure that it can be evaluated. It will be administered in a format like that of the COPE intervention program, and will include the same number and length of sessions, except for that it will not include the theoretical active components of CBT and will not include theoretical mechanisms to produce our hypothesized changes in outcomes. Teens in the attention control group also will receive the sessions in their required health class. The difference between the two programs will lie in the content of the sessions, with the Healthy Teens program being focused on safety and common health topics/issues for teens (e.g., road safety, skin care, acne, sun safety).

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR)

  collaborator NIH

• Arizona State University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Bernadette M Melnyk, PhD, RN, CPNP/PMHNP, FNAP FAAN · Ohio State University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

DOUBLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

14 Years

Max Age

16 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2010-01-31

Primary Completion

2012-12-31

Completion

2013-06-30

Countries

• United States

Study Locations