STUDY PROTOCOL article
Front. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry
Sec. Developmental Psychopathology and Mental Health
Volume 4 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frcha.2025.1569135
This article is part of the Research TopicRising Stars in Developmental Psychopathology and Mental Health: 2024View all 4 articles
Boikoetliso Ba Boko ("exercising the mind"): Protocol for a mixed methods feasibility and acceptability study of a prototype mental health intervention for adolescents and young people with anxiety and depression Authors
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
- 2University of Southampton, Southampton, Hampshire, United Kingdom
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Approximately one in four adolescents in Sub-Saharan Africa experiences significantly elevated symptoms of anxiety and depression. Those living in resource-constrained communities face heightened risks due to acute distress, trauma, and less responsive health care services. Boikoetliso Ba Boko (meaning "exercising the mind") is an intervention prototype designed for adolescents and young people experiencing common mental health conditions.The prototype aims to implement a youth-centred community mental health intervention, through collaboration with existing public health systems and community resources. It seeks to enhance access to mental health support for adolescents and young people in Soweto, South Africa, by creating a dynamic and engaging therapeutic environment for those dealing with anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation. This protocol outlines how we will evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and implementation process of the prototype mental health intervention. We will enrol 200 at-risk adolescents and young people, aged 14 to 24 years, who will serve as their own controls, into the intervention and collect assessment and process evaluation data using mixed methods.This study aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of how the Boikoetliso Ba Boko adolescent mental health prototype can be effectively evaluated and scaled up in resource-constrained communities. The findings will inform the development of a Phase II randomized controlled trial protocol to assess the prototype's efficacy.
Keywords: adolescent mental health, Feasibility study, Acceptability, mixed methods, Problem Management Plus, sub-Saharan Africa
Received: 31 Jan 2025; Accepted: 06 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Hart, Desai, Stuart and Norris. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Claire Hart, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2000, South Africa
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