NCT06286787

Efficacy of Mountain Craft Training at Enhancing the Resilience and Physio-psychological Well-being of Children From Low-income Families

Efficacy of Mountain Craft Training at Enhancing the Resilience and Physical and Psychological Well-being of Children From Low-income Families: A Pilot Randomised Controlled Trial

• Status: Unknown
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 40 (estimated)
• Sponsor: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 12 Years – 14 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

It is imperative to offer adequate community resources and psychosocial support, with a particular focus on enhancing resilience for children from low-income families. This study aims to determine the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of mountain craft training in enhancing resilience and self-esteem, reducing depressive symptoms, and improving the physical health of children from low-income families.

Detailed description

It is imperative to offer adequate community resources and psychosocial support, with a particular focus on enhancing resilience for children from low-income families. This study aims to determine the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of mountain craft training in enhancing resilience and self-esteem, reducing depressive symptoms, and improving the physical health of children from low-income families. This will be a pilot RCT using a two-group pre- and post-test within-subject design. The investigators plan to recruit 40 children in the Kwai Tsing District to participate in this study via the Asbury Methodist Social Service. Participants in the intervention group will be invited to join the mountain craft training programme. The research team will work with Mountain \& Stream (https://www.mtandstream.com/) to offer a tailor-made hiking training programme for Form 1 students. Participants will be invited to join a control intervention that mimics the time and attention received by participants in the intervention group but will be designed to have no specific effect on the outcome variables. The investigators hypothesise that participants who receive mountain craft training (six sessions) over 3 months will report significant improvements in: (i) resilience, (ii) self-esteem; (iii) depressive symptoms, and (iv) physical well-being compared with those in the placebo control group at the 6-month follow-up assessment.

Conditions

• Resilience
• Well-being
• Children

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Intervention	The training programme will consist of a 3-hour lecture. The contents of the lecture will include knowledge of mountaineering in Hong Kong, country codes and care for the environment, environmental awareness when undertaking outdoor activities, hiking skills, knowledge and choice of hiking equipment and clothing, trip planning, mountain safety, map reading, the use of a compass, mountain safety, basic first aid, methods of calling for help in an emergency and sources of weather data. After completing the lecture, participants will be required to join a 6-day hiking training programme on weekends within a 3-month period (each training will be at least 5 kilometres and the duration will be at least 4 hours).
OTHER	Placebo	Control participants will be asked to join six day-time leisure activities on weekends within a 3-month period. Leisure activities will be organised by the Asbury Methodist Social Service and will include cartoon film shows, handicraft workshops, chess games, health talks on the prevention of influenza and eating a healthy diet, and day visits to a museum and theme park. Children in the placebo control group will receive free access to leisure activities, including visits to museums and theme parks as an incentive for his/her participation.

Timeline

• Start date: 2023-11-16
• Primary completion: 2024-11-01
• Completion: 2024-11-01
• First posted: 2024-02-29
• Last updated: 2024-02-29

Locations

1 site across 1 country: China