Intervention for Victimized Youth (IVY)

Florida State University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Victimization

Treatments: Behavioral: counseling

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT06631274

STUDY00004121

1R21HD112660 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Details and patient eligibility

About

IVY (Intervention for Victimized Youth). Just as ivy plants are strong and can flourish in difficult environments, the goal of IVY will be for targets of peer victimization to thrive academically and socially despite challenging circumstances.

Full description

The project involves the development of a virtual intervention program for targets of peer victimization. Intervention for Victimized Youth (IVY) will improve upon many limitations of existing interventions described above since it is the first intervention program to specifically address the needs of targets of peer victimization from a trauma perspective. Moreover, it addresses key limitations of CBITS and increases the flexibility of the intervention by using a virtual delivery model. Just as ivy plants are strong and can flourish in difficult environments, the goal of IVY is for victimized youth to thrive academically and socially despite challenging circumstances. IVY uses a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) approach to address current distress due to peer victimization and teach strategies for handling any future peer victimization. Common elements of effective CBT-based trauma treatments are psychoeducation, emotion regulation skills, imaginal or in vivo exposure, cognitive processing, and/or problem solving. Several methods are used within sessions to teach the content, including psychoeducation, didactic teaching, modeling, role playing, and guided self-reflection.

The proposed 8-week intervention. The focus of the first 4 sessions will be on teaching skills to help students overcome emotional difficulties associated with being victimized. Weekly topics include: 1) Introduction & Psychoeducation, 2) Emotional Regulation Skill Building and Practice, 3) Identifying & Coping with Difficult Thoughts and Emotions, and 4) Connecting Thoughts, Emotions, and Behaviors. The last 4 sessions are specific to peer victimization issues with a focus on avoiding re-victimization since victimized youth often are victimized repeatedly and report that they defend other victims. Weekly topics include: 5) Options for Protecting Yourself, 6) Social Problem-Solving Skills, 7) Adaptive Thinking, and 8) Future Planning & Celebration. Participants will be taught several options for intervening. A decision-making process for evaluating social situations will be taught. Based on the outcome of that decision-making process, participants will be taught options for responding with the goal of avoiding re-victimized.

Enrollment: 48 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 11 to 14 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• current middle school student in US (defined as grades 6, 7, or 8)
• experience at least one instance of peer victimization in past month
• Have elevated or extremely elevated social-emotional distress score, as measured by the BESS (Behavior and Emotional Screening System)

Exclusion criteria

• not current middle school student
• not experience victimization in past month
• no elevated score on BESS

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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48 participants in 2 patient groups

8 weeks of group counseling delivered in virtual environment

Other group

Description:

The treatment to be piloted is a 8 week virtual group counseling intervention with a focus on teaching participants skills to overcome emotional difficulties (Visit 1-4) and avoiding re-victimization (Visit 5-Visit 8).

Treatment:

Behavioral: counseling

control group

No Intervention group

Description:

Participants in this arm do not receive the intervention at the same time as the treatment group.