A Protocol to Promote Critical Consumption (PCC)

Universidad de San Martín de Porres

Status: Begins enrollment this month

Conditions: Promote a Critical Attitude Towards the Symbolic Consumption of Youghurt in Primary School Children

Treatments: Behavioral: psychoeducational programme to promote a critical attitude towards the symbolic consumption of yoghurt in primary school children

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06996847

001-2025-IDI-FCCTP

Details and patient eligibility

About

The aim of this randomised controlled trial is to evaluate the efficacy of an intervention called a psychoeducational programme to promote a critical attitude towards the symbolic consumption of yoghurt in primary school children. Specifically, a cluster randomised controlled trial will be conducted in primary schools in Lima, Peru. After informed consent of the tutor psychologists, children and parents, schools will be randomly assigned, in a 1:1 ratio, to the intervention or control group, with a total of 240 fourth grade students and 24 tutor psychologists. The primary and secondary research questions are as follows.

Full description

The aim of this randomised controlled trial is to evaluate the efficacy of an intervention called a psychoeducational programme to promote a critical attitude towards the symbolic consumption of yoghurt in primary school children.

Specifically, a cluster randomised controlled trial will be conducted in primary schools in Lima, Peru. After informed consent of the tutor psychologists, children and parents, schools will be randomly assigned, in a 1:1 ratio, to the intervention or control group, with a total of 240 fourth grade students and 24 tutor psychologists. The primary and secondary research questions are as follows.

The primary research question:

• Is the intervention effective in fostering critical attitudes towards symbolic yoghurt consumption in children from pre-test to post-test (Record of symbolic consumption responses: self, parent and facilitator reports)?

The secondary research questions:

• Is the intervention effective in stabilising the child's deductive skills?
• Is the main question moderated by the child's gender, physical disability, dysfunctional state and the facilitator's experience? The intervention will take place in the school classroom (2 sessions of 1 hour per week) for 3 consecutive weeks, plus a feedback session (1 hour per week); and a further session with parents (1 hour per week). A set of participatory techniques will be included to help distinguish between symbolic and nutritional aspects of yoghurt (e.g. role play), to help understand the persuasive intent of advertising (e.g. opinion wheel), and to help balance between peer pressure consumption and critical attitude. The control group will carry out the usual teaching and will receive the set of activities after the end of the trial. After two interviews with the child and another interview with the parents, the Symbolic Consumption Response Register will be completed, and the Raven's Progressive Matrices Test-2 will be applied before and immediately after the intervention, both in the control group and in the intervention group. The facilitators of both groups will complete a form immediately after the end of each psychoeducational activity for both children and parents Eligibility Criteria Description Additional inclusion criteria for schools are: (a) access to the classroom within the school, and (b) written informed consent for participation in this study by the 4th grade primary school psychologists. Inclusion criteria for children are: (a) enrolled in 4th grade, (b) give informed consent, (c) have written informed consent from their parents or legal guardians, present normal intelligence according to the Raven's Progressive Matrices Test-2.

Enrollment: 500 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 9 to 9 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

For children:

• Enrolled in 4th grade
• Provide informed assent
• Have written informed consent from their parents or legal guardians
• Present normal intelligence according to the Raven's Progressive Matrices Test-2

For schools:

• Provide access to the classroom within the school
• Provide written informed consent for participation from 4th grade primary school psychologists

Exclusion criteria

• Not enrolled in 4th grade
• Suffering from a mental disorder
• Repeating 4th grade
• Below normal intelligence according to the Raven-2 Progressive Matrices Test

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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500 participants in 3 patient groups

Intervention group

Experimental group

Description:

The promotion of critical consumption in children is to be developed in primary school classrooms. Students will spend a total of 7 hours: (2 sessions of 1 hour per week) for 3 consecutive weeks, plus a feedback session (1 hour per week); and there will be another session with parents (1 hour per week). The psychologist tutor will receive a set of six activities related to discriminating between symbolic and critical yoghurt consumption in children, understanding the persuasive intent of yoghurt advertising, awareness of social pressure and critical attitude. Psychological tutors will be trained and provided with support materials and equipment.

Treatment:

Behavioral: psychoeducational programme to promote a critical attitude towards the symbolic consumption of yoghurt in primary school children

Protocol to encourage critical consumption

Other group

Description:

As detailed in the description for the intervention group, the psychologist tutors guide the students in the classroom for two hours per week for three weeks in a row, plus a feedback session. There will also be a session with parents.

Treatment:

Behavioral: psychoeducational programme to promote a critical attitude towards the symbolic consumption of yoghurt in primary school children

No Intervention: Control

No Intervention group

Description:

Five months after the start of the randomised clinical trial, primary school teachers in the control group will receive an unguided version of the psychoeducational intervention programme, supplemented by an online peer support group. They will be provided with the six activities related to critical consumption and awareness of the persuasive intent of advertising and social pressure for students to practice independently, in addition to online support from the research group. As in the intervention group, psychological support will be provided to children with emotional difficulties.