Trauma-Informed School Intervention for Adolescent Mental Health and Self-Injury Prevention in China

Summary

This study evaluated a school-based psychosocial adaptive capacity enhancement program for Chinese adolescents. The program was developed to support students who may have experienced childhood household dysfunction or other adverse childhood experiences, while being delivered as a universal school-based mental health education program.

The intervention aimed to improve students' psychosocial skills, including emotional awareness, emotion regulation, stress coping, self-understanding, interpersonal communication, peer support, resilience, and mental health literacy. The study assessed whether the program was associated with improvements in adolescent mental health and psychosocial adaptation, including symptoms of depression and anxiety, rumination, dissociative experiences, resilience, behavioral difficulties, and non-suicidal self-injury-related thoughts and behaviors.

Participants were students from collaborating middle schools, high schools, and vocational secondary schools in Hongjiang, Hunan Province, China. Students in the intervention group received the structured school-based psychosocial program, while students in the control group continued their usual school education and routine mental health education. Outcomes were measured using self-report questionnaires at baseline and follow-up assessments.

This study was conducted as an international collaborative project, with ethical approval obtained in Japan and China. The intervention and data collection were conducted in China, and the Japanese research team was mainly responsible for study design, data management, statistical analysis, and manuscript preparation.

Conditions

• Adolescent Mental Health
• Psychosocial Adaptation
• Childhood Household Dysfunction

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

School-Based Psychosocial Adaptive Capacity Enhancement Program

The intervention is a structured school-based psychosocial adaptive capacity enhancement program for adolescents. It was developed based on trauma-informed principles related to childhood household dysfunction and adverse childhood experiences, life-skills education, and psychosocial competence enhancement. The program aims to support students' mental health and psychosocial adaptation by strengthening emotional awareness, emotion regulation, stress coping, self-understanding, interpersonal communication, peer support, resilience, and mental health literacy. The program was delivered in routine school settings by trained school mental health staff or psychologists under the guidance of the research team. Students in the control arm continued usual school education and routine mental health education and did not receive this structured program during the study period.16-session version: The program consisted of 16 sessions, delivered once weekly, approximately 45 minutes per session.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• WU Han

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

NON_RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

12 Years

Max Age

17 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2025-11-10

Primary Completion

2026-04-30

Completion

2026-05-05

Countries

• China

Study Locations