Preliminary Investigation of a Novel Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Curriculum on the Wellbeing of Middle Schoolers.

Objectifs: Un certain nombre d’interventions en milieu scolaire visant a prevenir et a attenuer les symptomes d’anxiete et de depression chez les adolescents ont ete mises au point dans le monde, mais les donnees probantes de leur efficacite sont partagees. Aucun de ces programmes d’etudes n’est issu de la litterature pour enfants existante, pourtant, la serie des Harry Potter (HP) a ete reconnue transmettre potentiellement des concepts de la therapie cognitivo-comportementale (TCC). Methods: This study aimed to broadly capture, at an interim stage, the feasibility of a pilot HP curriculum aimed at imparting CBT skills to middle-schoolers in order to inform full development of the curriculum. The study design further included a non-randomized, Group (HP; Control) by Time (Baseline, Post-Intervention, Follow-up) mixed factorial approach retrospectively examining change in scores on a "Well-Being and Resiliency Survey" (WBRS) which assessed multiple symptomatic and social domains. Resultats: En tout, 232 eleves de 7e et de 8e annee ont participe au programme durant deux ans sans abandons. Comparativement aux 362 temoins, il n’y avait pas de differences significatives des scores de SBER entre les groupes au suivi d’un an ou apres. Conclusions: This pilot study demonstrated the feasibility of rapid and broad implementation of the intervention. Preliminary analyses showed no indication of effectiveness which may be the product of the intervention being in an interim stage during the study period and/or the retrospective design and limitations in data quality. Specifically, these results suggest that the WBRS may be a suboptimal instrument for measuring the effectiveness of this intervention. A prospective trial of the complete, revised curriculum with validated measures is required to provide an adequately assessment of its impact.