Skip to main content
Key Specialties
Cardiology Diabetology Endocrinology Gastroenterology Geriatrics and Gerontology Gynecology and Obstetrics Hematology Infectious Disease Internal Medicine Nephrology Neurology Oncology Pediatrics Respiratory Medicine Rheumatology Surgery
Congress Coverage
2024 ACC Congress 2023 ESMO Congress 2023 EASD Congress 2023 ERS Congress 2023 ESC Congress 2023 EHA Congress 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting
Clinical Collections
Advances in Alzheimer’s

At a glance: The ONWARDS insulin icodec trials

A round-up of the ONWARDS phase 3 clinical trials evaluating the novel weekly insulin icodec in people with diabetes.
ADVANCED SEARCH
Log in
Top
Trials
Published in: Trials 1/2018

Open Access 01-12-2018 | Study protocol

A cluster randomised controlled trial of the Wellbeing in Secondary Education (WISE) Project – an intervention to improve the mental health support and training available to secondary school teachers: protocol for an integrated process evaluation

Authors: Rhiannon Evans, Rowan Brockman, Jillian Grey, Sarah Bell, Sarah Harding, David Gunnell, Rona Campbell, Simon Murphy, Tamsin Ford, William Hollingworth, Kate Tilling, Richard Morris, Bryar Kadir, Ricardo Araya, Judi Kidger

Published in: Trials | Issue 1/2018

Login to get access

Abstract

Background

Secondary school teachers have low levels of wellbeing and high levels of depression compared with the general population. Teachers are in a key position to support students, but poor mental health may be a barrier to doing so effectively. The Wellbeing in Secondary Education (WISE) project is a cluster randomised controlled trial (RCT) of an intervention to improve the mental health support and training available to secondary school teachers through delivery of the training package Mental Health First Aid and a staff peer support service. We will conduct a process evaluation as part of the WISE trial to support the interpretation of trial outcomes and refine intervention theory. The domains assessed will be: the extent to which the hypothesised mechanisms of change are activated; system level influences on these mechanisms; programme differentiation and usual practice; intervention implementation, including any adaptations; intervention acceptability; and intervention sustainability.

Methods

Research questions will be addressed via quantitative and qualitative methods. All study schools (n = 25) will provide process evaluation data, with more detailed focus group, interview and observation data being collected from a subsample of case study schools (4 intervention and 4 control). Mechanisms of change, as outlined in a logic model, will be measured via teacher and student surveys and focus groups. School context will be explored via audits of school practice that relate to mental health and wellbeing, combined with stakeholder interviews and focus groups. Implementation of the training and peer support service will be assessed via training observations, training participant evaluation forms, focus groups with participants, interviews with trainers and peer support service users, and peer supporter logs recording help provided. Acceptability and sustainability will be examined via interviews with funders, head teachers, trainers and peer support services users, and focus groups with training participants.

Discussion

The process evaluation embedded within the WISE cluster RCT will illuminate how and why the intervention was effective, ineffective or conferred iatrogenic effects. It will contribute to the refinement of the theory underpinning the intervention, and will help to inform any future implementation.

Trial registration

International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number: ISRCTN95909211 registered on 24 March 2016.
Literature
1.
Johnson S, Cooper C, Cartwright S, Donald I, Taylor P, Millet C. The experience of work-related stress across occupations. J Manag Psychol. 2005;20(2):178–87.CrossRef
2.
Stansfeld SA, Rasul FR, Head J, Singleton N. Occupation and mental health in a national UK survey. Soc Psych Psych Epidemiol. 2011;46(2):101–10.CrossRef
3.
Kidger J, Brockman R, Tilling K, Campbell R, Ford T, Araya R, King M, Gunnell D. Teachers’ wellbeing and depressive symptoms, and associated risk factors: a large cross sectional study in English secondary schools. J Affect Disord. 2016;192:76–82.CrossRefPubMed
4.
Martin A, Rief W, Klaiberg A, Braehler E. Validity of the brief patient health questionnaire mood scale (PHQ-9) in the general population. Gen Hosp Psychiat. 2006;28(1):71–7.CrossRef
5.
Kroenke K, Strine TW, Spitzer RL, Williams JBW, Berry JT, Mokdad AH. The PHQ-8 as a measure of current depression in the general population. J Affect Disord. 2009;114(1–3):163–73.CrossRefPubMed
6.
Melchior M, Caspi A, Milne BJ, Danese A, Poulton R, Moffitt TE. Work stress precipitates depression and anxiety in young, working women and men. Psychol Med. 2007;37(8):1119–29.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
7.
8.
9.
Lang IA, Marlow R, Goodman R, Meltzer H, Ford T. Influence of problematic child-teacher relationships on future psychiatric disorder: population survey with 3-year follow up. Brit J Psych. 2013;202(5):336–41.CrossRef
10.
Hughes J, Kwok O. Influence of student-teacher and parent-teacher relationships on lower achieving readers’ engagement and achievement in the primary grades. Journal. Educ Psychol. 2007;99(1):39–51.CrossRef
11.
Kidger J, Araya R, Donovan J, Gunnell D. The effect of the school environment on the emotional health of adolescents: a systematic review. Pediatrics. 2012;129(5):925–49.CrossRefPubMed
12.
Ford T, Hamilton H, Meltzer H, Goodman R. Child mental health is everyone’s business: the prevalence of contact with public sector services by type of disorder among British school children in a three-year period. Child Adolesc Mental Health. 2007;12(1):13–20.CrossRef
13.
Sisask M, Värnik P, Värnik A, Apter A, Balazs J, Balint M, Bobes J, Brunner R, Corcoran P, Cosman D, Feldman D, Haring C, Kahn JP, Postuvan V, Tubiana A, Sarchiapone M, Wasserman C, Carli V, Hoven CW, Wasserman D. Teachers satisfaction with school and psychological well-being affects their readiness to help children with mental health problems. Health Educ J. 2014;73(4):382–93.CrossRef
14.
Rothi DM, Leavey G, Best R. On the front-line: teachers as active observers of pupils’ mental health. Teach Teach Educ. 2008;24(5):1217–31.CrossRef
15.
Kidger J, Gunnell D, Biddle L, Campbell R, Donovan J. Part and parcel of teaching? Secondary school staff’s views on supporting student emotional health and wellbeing. Brit Ed Res J. 2009;36(6):919–35.CrossRef
16.
17.
Wasserman D, Hoven CW, Wasserman C, Wall M, Eisenberg R, Hadlaczky G, et al. School-based suicide prevention programmes: the SEYLE cluster-randomised, controlled trial. Lancet. 2015;385(9977):1536–44.CrossRefPubMed
18.
19.
20.
Thoits PA. Mechanisms linking social ties and support to physical and mental health. J Health Soc Behav. 2011;52(2):145–61.CrossRefPubMed
21.
Rowe R, Stewart D, Patterson C. Promoting school connectedness through whole school approaches. Health Educ J. 2007;107(6):524–42.CrossRef
22.
Jennings P, Greenberg M. The pro-social classroom: teacher social and emotional competence in relation to student and classroom outcomes. Rev Educ Res. 2009;79(1):491–525.CrossRef
23.
Kelly JA, Murphy DA, Sikkema KJ, et al. Randomised, controlled community-level HIV-prevention intervention for sexual-risk behaviour among homosexual men in US cities. Lancet. 1997;350:1500–5.CrossRefPubMed
24.
25.
Moore G, Audrey S, Barker M, Bond L, Bonell C, Hardeman W, Moore L, O’Cathain A, Tinati T, Wight D, Baird J. Process Evaluation of Complex Interventions: Medical Research Council Guidance. London: MRC Population Health Sciences Research Network; 2014.
26.
27.
Fletcher A, Jamal F, Moore G, Evans R, Murphy S, Bonell C. Realist complex intervention science: Applying realist principles across all phases of the Medical Research Council Framework for developing and evaluating complex interventions. Evaluation. 2016;22(3):286–303.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
28.
Moore G, Evans R. What theory, for whom and in which context? Reflections on the application of theory in the development and evaluation of complex population health interventions. SSM Popul Health. 2017;3:132–5.CrossRefPubMed
29.
Bonell C, Jamal F, Melendez-Torres GJ, Cummins S. ‘Dark logic’: theorising the harmful consequences of public health interventions. J Epidemiol Commun. 2013;69:95–8.CrossRef
30.
31.
32.
Braun V, Clarke V. Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qual Res Psychol. 2006;3(2):77–101.CrossRef
33.
Clarke V, Braun V, Hayfield N. Thematic analysis. In: Smith JA, editor. Qualitative psychology. A practical guide to research methods. 3rd ed. London: Sage; 2015. p. 222–48.
34.
Bryman A. Barriers to integrating quantitative and qualitative research. J Mixed Methods Res. 2007;1(1):8–22.CrossRef
35.
Durlak J, DuPre E. Implementation matters: A review of research on the influence of implementation on program outcomes and the factors affecting implementation. Am J Commun Psychol. 2008;41(3–4):327–50.CrossRef
Metadata
Title
A cluster randomised controlled trial of the Wellbeing in Secondary Education (WISE) Project – an intervention to improve the mental health support and training available to secondary school teachers: protocol for an integrated process evaluation
Authors
Rhiannon Evans
Rowan Brockman
Jillian Grey
Sarah Bell
Sarah Harding
David Gunnell
Rona Campbell
Simon Murphy
Tamsin Ford
William Hollingworth
Kate Tilling
Richard Morris
Bryar Kadir
Ricardo Araya
Judi Kidger
Publication date
01-12-2018
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
Trials / Issue 1/2018
Electronic ISSN: 1745-6215
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-018-2617-4

Other articles of this Issue 1/2018

Trials 1/2018 Go to the issue

Study protocol

Effectiveness and safety of bifidobacteria and berberine in people with hyperglycemia: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Research

Patient understanding and acceptability of an early lung cancer diagnosis trial: a qualitative study

Study protocol

Percutaneous transhepatic vs. endoscopic retrograde biliary drainage for suspected malignant hilar obstruction: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Research

Challenges recruiting to a proof-of-concept pharmaceutical trial for a rare disease: the trigeminal neuralgia experience

Study protocol

Danggwijagyaksan for climacteric syndrome in peri- and postmenopausal women with a blood-deficiency dominant pattern: study protocol for a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot trial

Research

Exploring factors associated with views on sharing of certain interim trial result measures by the data safety monitoring board (DSMB) with non-DSMB members