NCT05662436

Protocol for the Open Sky School

Protocol for the Open Sky School: A Two-arm Clustered Randomized Controlled Trial to Test the Effectiveness of a Nature-based Intervention on Mental Health of Elementary School Children

• Status: Unknown
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 2,500 (estimated)
• Sponsor: McGill University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: —
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The goal of this a randomized controlled trial to test the effectiveness of a nature-based intervention called Open Sky School to reduce mental health problems among elementary school children. More specifically a two-arm clustered randomized controlled trial will be conducted in elementary schools across Québec, Canada. Following informed consent by teachers, parents and students, schools will be randomly assigned 1:1 to the intervention or the control group with a total of 2500 6th grade students and 100 teachers expected to participate. The primary and secondary research questions are as follows. The primary research question : * Is the intervention effective in reducing mental health problems in children from pre-to-post test (Social Behavior Questionnaire: self and teacher reports) ? The secondary research questions: * Is the intervention effective in improving children's depression, positive and negative affect, nature connectedness. eco-anxiety and pro-environmental behaviors ? * Is the intervention effective in improving teachers' well-being and affect ? * Are the benefits to children sustained benefits at 3 months follow-up ? * Is the primary question moderated by child's sex, child's disability status, the green space of neighbourhoods, the school's socio-economic position and teacher's experience wtih outdoor education ? The intervention will take place outdoors in a green-space (2 hours per week for 12 weeks) and include a toolkit of 30 activities to foster well-being (e.g. mindfulness) and academic competencies (e.g. mathematics). The control group will engage in teaching-as-usual and will be provided with the activity toolkit after the trial has been conducted. Questionnaires will be administered to students before, immediately after and 3 months after the intervention in both the control and intervention groups. Teachers in both groups will complete questionnaires before and immediately after the intervention.

Conditions

• Child Behavior

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Open Sky School program	Teachers lead students in 2 hours of outdoor activities per week for 12 weeks, as detailed in the arm description

Timeline

• Start date: 2022-12-20
• Primary completion: 2023-06-20
• Completion: 2023-09-23
• First posted: 2022-12-22
• Last updated: 2022-12-22

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Canada