Optimizing a group-based school intervention for children with emotional problems

Youth mental health problems are a major public health concern in Norway. The National Institute of Public Health estimates the total prevalence of mental health problems and disorders in youth to 7%-23%, with increasing prevalence in recent years. Anxiety disorders and depression are among the most common psychological difficulties. We will therefore develop and test a new indicated preventive intervention in schools for children age 9-12 years. The national study has received funding and will have a stratified, randomized cluster design where 40 schools (N=800 children) are randomized to different experimental conditions. The factors are (1) feedback from a Measurement Feedback System (MFS), (2) Evidence Based Intervention (EBI), and (3) parent involvement.

The MFS will consist of instruments selected in close collaboration with the services and will include new idiographic measures of personal aims and symptom burden displayed on a dashboard. The EBI is the newly developed EMOTION intervention used in a short version delivered as partial web-based solution with VR-technology for behavioral experiments and exposure. Parents will in addition participate in a 5-session parent group or receive information in brochure. The rational and evidence for the factors in this study will be discussed in four separate presentations.

Simon Peter obtained his degree in Psychology in 1994 in Germany. Subsequently, he obtained his doctorate at the Free University of Berlin. During his career he has been a researcher at the Technical University of Dresden (Germany), Researcher at the University Psychiatric Clinic in Basel (Switzerland), Clinical Psychologist and Head of the Open Rehabilitation Program at the Aker Hospital (Norway), Member of the National Prevention Network at the University of Tromsø, Certified Supervisor of the Norwegian Association for Cognitive Therapy, Specialist in Clinical Psychology by the Norwegian Association of Psychology (NPA) and member of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy (ACT) in the USA, among others.