School of Psychology and Early Start, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Wollongong, Northfields Avenue, Wollongong, 2522, Australia.
School of Mathematics and Applied Statistics, Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences, University of Wollongong, Northfields Avenue, Wollongong, 2522, Australia.
BMC Public Health. 2018 Mar 21;18(1):390. doi: 10.1186/s12889-018-5319-7.
There is a recognised need for targeted community-wide mental health strategies and interventions aimed specifically at prevention and early intervention in promoting mental health. Young males are a high need group who hold particularly negative attitudes towards mental health services, and these views are detrimental for early intervention and help-seeking. Organised sports provide a promising context to deliver community-wide mental health strategies and interventions to adolescent males. The aim of the Ahead of the Game program is to test the effectiveness of a multi-component, community-sport based program targeting prevention, promotion and early intervention for mental health among adolescent males.
The Ahead of the Game program will be implemented within a sample drawn from community sporting clubs and evaluated using a sample drawn from a matched control community. Four programs are proposed, including two targeting adolescents, one for parents, and one for sports coaches. One adolescent program aims to increase mental health literacy, intentions to seek and/or provide help for mental health, and to decrease stigmatising attitudes. The second adolescent program aims to increase resilience. The goal of the parent program is to increase parental mental health literacy and confidence to provide help. The coach program is intended to increase coaches' supportive behaviours (e.g., autonomy supportive behaviours), and in turn facilitate high-quality motivation and wellbeing among adolescents. Programs will be complemented by a messaging campaign aimed at adolescents to enhance mental health literacy. The effects of the program on adolescent males' psychological distress and wellbeing will also be explored.
Organised sports represent a potentially engaging avenue to promote mental health and prevent the onset of mental health problems among adolescent males. The community-based design, with samples drawn from an intervention and a matched control community, enables evaluation of adolescent males' incremental mental health literacy, help-seeking intentions, stigmatising attitudes, motivation, and resilience impacts from the multi-level, multi-component Ahead of the Game program. Notable risks to the study include self-selection bias, the non-randomised design, and the translational nature of the program. However, strengths include extensive community input, as well as the multi-level and multi-component design.
Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12617000709347 . Date registered 17 May 2017. Retrospectively registered.
需要有针对性的社区范围的心理健康策略和干预措施，专门针对促进心理健康的预防和早期干预。年轻男性是一个高需求群体，他们对心理健康服务持有特别负面的态度，而这些观点不利于早期干预和寻求帮助。组织体育活动为提供社区范围的心理健康策略和干预措施提供了一个有前途的环境，以满足青少年男性的需求。“领先游戏”计划的目的是测试针对青少年男性心理健康的多组分、社区体育为基础的预防、促进和早期干预计划的有效性。
“领先游戏”计划将在从社区体育俱乐部中抽取的样本中实施，并使用从匹配的对照组社区中抽取的样本进行评估。提出了四个方案，其中两个针对青少年，一个针对家长，一个针对体育教练。一个青少年方案旨在提高心理健康素养，增加寻求和/或提供心理健康帮助的意愿，并减少污名化态度。第二个青少年方案旨在提高适应力。家长方案的目标是提高家长的心理健康素养和提供帮助的信心。教练方案旨在增加教练的支持性行为（例如，自主性支持行为），从而促进青少年的高成就感和幸福感。该方案还将辅以针对青少年的信息传递活动，以提高心理健康素养。该方案还将探讨对青少年男性心理困扰和幸福感的影响。
组织体育活动代表了一种潜在的吸引人的途径，可以促进青少年男性的心理健康，预防心理健康问题的发生。基于社区的设计，从干预组和匹配的对照组社区中抽取样本，使我们能够评估“领先游戏”多层面、多组分计划对青少年男性心理健康素养、寻求帮助的意愿、污名化态度、动机和适应力的增量影响。研究的显著风险包括自我选择偏差、非随机设计和方案的转化性质。然而，该方案的优势包括广泛的社区投入以及多层次和多组分的设计。
澳大利亚新西兰临床试验注册中心 ACTRN12617000709347。注册日期 2017 年 5 月 17 日。回顾性注册。
