A School-based Intervention Project to Increase Completion of Upper Secondary School in Norway

Summary

Drop out from upper secondary school represents a risk for the future health and wellbeing of young people. Strengthening of psychosocial aspects of the learning environment may be an effective strategy to promote completion of upper secondary school. The COMPLETE study is a school based cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) evaluating two school-based interventions, namely the Dream School Program (DSP) and the Mental Health Support Team (MHST) among 1st grade upper secondary school students in four counties in Norway. The interventions aim to improve psychosocial learning environments and subsequently school achievements and decrease drop-out and absence.

Specifically, the COMPLETE study will

1. Evaluate whether the DSP alone

1. increases completion
2. increases presence
3. improves school achievements
4. improves mental health and wellbeing
2. Evaluate whether the DSP and the MHST combined

1. increase completion
2. increase presence
3. improve school achievements
4. improve mental health and wellbeing

The COMPLETE study will also evaluate the effect of the DSP and MHST combined and the DSP alone against secondary outcomes of school satisfaction and loneliness.
3. Evaluate through a process evaluation whether the interventions were implemented in line with guidelines for each of the interventions, and whether the degree of program fidelity has influenced the effect of the interventions on the primary and secondary outcomes.

Conditions

• Drop Out
• Absence
• Academic Achievement/Average Grade
• Mental Health

Interventions

OTHER

Dream School Program

The Dream School program is a whole school program, involving staff and students, with the aim of creating learning environments where students are confident and experience a sense of belonging, and where mental health is promoted.

OTHER

Mental Health Support Team

MHST is also a whole school project but aimed at specific students at risk of dropping out. It is a systematisation of the student services through 1. Co-location of services and staff working in services 2. "One open door" to increase accessibility to the services and staff for students 3. Focus on the transition from lower to upper secondary school 4. Close follow-up of students at risk to ensure tailored help to each student 5. Early intervention and follow up when students starts being absent from school This work demands cross- and multidisciplinary collaborations within the MHST, between MHST and school leadership, and between lower and upper secondary schools.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Oxford Research

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Nordland Research Institute

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Voksne for Barn

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Bodin Upper Secondary School

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Troms county

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Nordland county

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Sogn og Fjordane county

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Hordaland County

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• University of Bergen

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Torill B Larsen, PhD · University of Bergen

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

15 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2016-02-01

Primary Completion

2019-10-31

Completion

2020-02-12