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Active, Not Recruiting

NCT Number: NCT06555172

Feasibility Testing a Meditation App for Professionals Working With Youth in the Legal System

This feasibility clinical trial aims to assess the feasibility of implementing a 1-month app-based meditation program with officers in the juvenile legal system and other professionals working directly with legal-involved youth.

Active, Not Recruiting

This study is active but is not currently recruiting participants.

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Key information

Age range

18 year and older

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

University of Illinois Chicago

Chicago, Illinois, 60612, United States

About this study

Professionals working with legal-involved youth experience high levels of depression, anxiety, and workplace burnout. Mindfulness meditation targets emotion regulation-which appears to be a common mechanism underlying depression, anxiety, and burnout-and it can be effectively delivered via smartphone app. This project will assess the feasibility of implementing a 1-month app-based meditation program with officers and other professionals working with legal-involved youth. The findings are intended to inform the development of a future, fully-powered hybrid effectiveness-implementation randomized controlled trial (RCT).

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • Currently working with youth in the juvenile legal system or related juvenile services and programming
  • English speaking
  • Able to understand and provide consent
  • At least 18 years old
  • Have an Android or Apple smartphone

Treatment and study plan

Action In Mindfulness (AIM)+

Behavioral

AIM+ is a smartphone-based app that teaches mindfulness meditation to professionals working with legal-involved youth over a 30-day "path." Each day of the path consists of a brief (approximately 5- to 10-minute) audio-guided meditation practice, with brief videos interspersed to illustrate key concepts and promote engagement. In addition to the 30 daily path files, users have access to a menu of "to go" audio-guided meditation practices that they can use as relevant to their workday (e.g., for professionals to listen to before attending a meeting). AIM+ also includes a menu of audio-guided meditation practices that officers can share with the youth on their caseloads (e.g., for youth to listen to before attending court).

Resource+

Behavioral

Resource+ is a 30-day smartphone-based program that includes information on local and national resources that professionals can use to learn about organizations and services available to youth with whom they work.

Primary outcomes

  1. App adherence

    Time frame: 1 month

    Days of objective app usage

Secondary outcomes

  1. Acceptability

    Time frame: 1 month

    Measured by Acceptability of Intervention Measure (AIM). This scale measures acceptability using 4 items, each item rated on a 5-point scale and averaged to yield total scale scores between 1 and 5; higher scores indicate greater acceptability.

  2. Appropriateness

    Time frame: 1 Month

    Measured with the Intervention Appropriateness Measure (IAM). This scale measures appropriateness using 4 items, each item rated on a 5-point scale and averaged to yield total scale scores between 1 and 5; higher scores indicate greater appropriateness.

  3. Feasibility of App Implementation

    Time frame: 1 month

    Measured with the Feasibility of Intervention Measure (FIM). This scale measures feasibility using 4 items, each item rated on a 5-point scale and averaged to yield total scale scores between 1 and 5; higher scores indicate greater feasibility.

  4. Usability

    Time frame: 1 month

    Measured with the System Usability Scale (SUS). This scale measures the usability of products and designs, specifically effectiveness, efficiency, and user satisfaction using 10 items, each item is rated on a 5-point scale; items calculated to produce a total score between 0 and 100; higher scores generally indicate greater usability.

  5. Satisfaction with intervention

    Time frame: 1 month

    Measured with the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ-8). This scale measures satisfaction using 8 items, each item is rated on a 4-point scale; total sum scores range from 8 to 32; higher scores indicate higher satisfaction.

  6. Penetration

    Time frame: 1 and 6 month

    Measured via objective app analytics.

    • App analytics track referrals to our clinical trials made by participants through their study app to (a) other officers and (b) youth in the legal system.
    • App analytics track the use by participants of files from their study app that are intended to be shared with youth (i.e., meditation practices to play with youth in the AIM+ app, or resources to be shared with youth in the Resource+ app).

Other outcomes

  1. Anxiety

    Time frame: baseline, 1 month, 6 months

    Measured with the PROMIS Anxiety scale. This scale measures anxiety symptoms over the past week using a computer adaptive test/item bank administers of to 12 items, each rated on a 5-point scale; integrated adaptive scoring yields a T-score and standard error (SE); higher scores indicating more anxiety symptoms.

  2. Depression

    Time frame: baseline, 1 month, 6 months

    Measured with the PROMIS Depression Scale. This scale measures depression symptoms over the past week using a computer adaptive test/item bank administers of to 12 items, each rated on a 5-point scale; integrated adaptive scoring yields a T-score and standard error (SE); higher scores indicating more depression symptoms.

  3. Workplace burnout

    Time frame: baseline, 1 month, 6 months

    Measured with the Maslach Burnout Inventory General (MBI-G). This measure contains three scales measuring emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment.

    • The 9-item Emotional Exhaustion (EE) scale assesses feelings of being emotionally overextended and exhausted by one's work, with items rated on a 7-point scale; sum scores range from 0-54; higher scores indicate greater degrees of experienced burnout.
    • The 5-item Depersonalization (DP) scale measures an unfeeling and impersonal response toward recipients of one's service, care, treatment, or instruction, with items rated on a 7-point scale; sum scores range from 0-30; Higher scores correspond to greater degrees of experienced burnout.
    • The 8-item Personal Accomplishment (PA) scale assesses feelings of competence and successful achievement in one's work with people, with items rated on a 7-point scale; sum scores range from 0-48; lower scores correspond to greater degrees of experienced burnout.
  4. Perceived stress

    Time frame: baseline, 1 month, 6 months

    Measured with the Perceived Stress Scale. This scale measures perception of stress over the past month, i.e. the degree to which situations in one's life are appraised as stressful, using 10-items each rated on a 5-point scale; total sum scores range from 0-40, with higher scores indicate more perceived stress.

  5. Anger

    Time frame: baseline, 1 month, 6 months

    Measured with the PROMIS Short Form v1.1 Anger 5a scale. This scale measures anger over the past 7 days using 5 items, each item rated on a 5-point scale; integrated scoring yields a T-score and standard error (SE), with higher scores indicating more anger.

  6. Sleep disturbance

    Time frame: baseline, 1 month, 6 months

    Measured with the PROMIS Short Form v1.0 Sleep Disturbance. This scale measures sleep disturbance over the past 7 days using 8 items, each item rated on a 5-point scale; integrated scoring yields a T-score and standard error (SE); higher scores indicate more sleep disturbance.

  7. Alcohol use

    Time frame: baseline, 1 month, 6 months

    Measured with the PROMIS Short Form v1.0 Alcohol Use 7a. This scale measures alcohol consumption, cravings, or difficulty controlling drinking over the past 30 days using 7 items, each item rated on a 5-point scale; integrated scoring yields a T-score and standard error (SE); higher scores indicate more alcohol consumption, cravings, or difficulty controlling drinking.

  8. Resilience

    Time frame: baseline, 1 month, 6 months

    Measured with the Brief Resilience Scale. This scale measures resilience, i.e. adaptation, thriving, and resistance to illness using 6 items, each item rated on a 5-point scale; averaged to yield total scale scores between 1 and 5; higher scores indicate more resilience.

  9. Mindfulness

    Time frame: baseline, 1 month, 6 months

    Measured with the Five Facets of Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ-15). This scale measures mindfulness with subscales for observing, describing, acting with awareness, non-judging, and non-reactivity using 15 items, each item rated on a 5-point scale; total sum scores range from 15-75; higher scores indicate higher levels of mindfulness.

  10. Regulation of negative mood states

    Time frame: baseline, 1 month, 6 months

    Measured with the Negative Mood Regulation (NMR) Scale. This scale measures regulation of negative mood states using 14 items, each item rated on a 5-point scale; averaged to yield total scale scores between 1 and 5; higher scores indicate a strong belief that one can alter negative moods.

  11. Attentional control

    Time frame: baseline, 1 month, 6 months

    Measured with the Attention Control Scale (ATTC). This scale measures two major components of attention (attention focusing and attention shifting) and consists of 20 items that are rated on a four-point Likert scale from 1 (almost never) to 4 (always); some items are reverse coded and scale scores are calculated as the sum of respective items; higher scores indicate greater attention control.

  12. Current positive and negative mood states

    Time frame: baseline, 1 month

    Measured with the International Positive Affect Negative Affect Schedule Short Form (I-PANAS-SF). This scale measures positive and negative affect, with subscales for positive and negative affect, using 10 items, each item rated on a 5-point scale; sum scores range from 5 to 25; higher scores indicate greater tendency to experiences positive or negative mood, respectively.

  13. Current attentional control

    Time frame: baseline, 1 month

    Measured using 2 items asking about trouble focusing and distraction in the past 3 hours, rated on a scale of 1 (never) to 6 (almost always); items are reverse-coded and averaged to form a composite representing momentary attentional control; higher scores indicate greater attentional control.

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

University of Illinois at Chicago

Other

Registry information

Official study title

Feasibility Trial of a Mindfulness-based mHealth Intervention to Mitigate the Effects of Chronic Workplace Stress Among Juvenile Justice Officers

Important dates

Study start
2024
Primary completion
2026
Study completion
2027
First posted
Aug 15, 2024
Registry last updated
Jun 30, 2026

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

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This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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