NCT07165704

Community Galleries - Art and Children in Action: Study Protocol

Community Galleries - Art and Children in Action: Protocol for a Cluster Non-Randomized Controlled Trial of an Art-Based Intervention to Promote Child Psychological Adjustment, Self-Concept and Quality of Life

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 172 (actual)
• Sponsor: Associação para o Apoio à Integração Social e Comunitária · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 6 Years – 12 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The goal of this trial is to evaluate whether a community-based visual arts intervention can improve self-concept, psychological adjustment, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in children aged between 6 and 12, from socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods. The main questions it aims to answer are: * Does the intervention improve children's psychological adjustment, as the primary outcome? * Does the intervention improve self-concept and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) as the secondary outcomes? * Is the intervention cost-effective compared to the waitlist control? Researchers will compare children receiving the visual arts intervention (intervention group) with children not receiving the intervention (waiting list control group) to see if the program leads to measurable improvements in psychological adjustment, self-concept, and health-related quality of life. Participants will: * Take part in one-hour weekly visual arts sessions for nine months, led by professional artists; * Participate in community art exhibitions at the end of the program; * Complete questionnaires on psychological adjustment, self-concept, HRQoL, and societal resource use at baseline and post-intervention; * Teachers/technicians will complete questionnaires on children's psychological adjustment.

Conditions

• Self-concept
• Psychological Adjustment
• Health Related Quality of Life

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Visual arts	The arts intervention will consist of two parts: (a) implementation of one-hour session of Visual Arts (e.g., painting, drawing, printing techniques exercises). The activities will be guided through a theme (Emotions), by a professional artist, to obtain a final individual artistic product. Peer contact, shared learning, and a feeling of community are all made possible by the group-based approach. This facilitator will offer assistance, motivation, and technical training as they lead participants through the creative process. Using narrative-building and dialogue-based methods, the artist will encourage children to share their stories, experiences, and perspectives, through art. (b) Children's final artistic products will be displayed in Community Galleries in their neighbourhood in an opening ceremony.

Timeline

• Start date: 2024-02-26
• Primary completion: 2025-02-28
• Completion: 2025-07-02
• First posted: 2025-09-10
• Last updated: 2025-09-15

Locations

10 sites across 1 country: Portugal