The Future Leaders Program (FLP) Randomized Controlled Trial

The Future Leaders Program (FLP) is a research study funded by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH), which is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In a partnership between Boston University (BU), Mass General Hospital (MGH), and the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), this study will test the effectiveness of the Leadership, Engagement, and youth Action Program with Mindfulness (LEAP) in improving mental health and wellbeing among high school students. The 7-week LEAP intervention was designed in partnership with youth to develop leadership skills and foster peer relations, and to improve their well-being. LEAP integrates training in mindfulness throughout the intervention to support youth in their leadership work. Our long-term goal is to evaluate whether LEAP can effectively improve leadership skills and the mental, emotional, and behavioral (MEB) health and well-being of all youth.

The active comparator, EnvisionIT, is an evidence-based college and career readiness program designed to learn skills for conducting college and job searches, preparing applications, and job interviewing. Students in this program put together a portfolio that they can use in future job searches.

Both programs are fun, interactive, and involve working collaboratively together. High schoolers will be randomly assigned to participate in one of the two programs. Students will be recruited in Boston and Chicago, and will attend program sessions twice a week for seven weeks (14 sessions). Project website: Future Leaders

Our specific aims are as follows:

Aim 1. To test whether LEAP is effective at improving the primary outcome of youth well-being (mental, behavioral, and physical health) in the short-term (immediate post-intervention; 3-months post-baseline) compared to youth in the comparison EnvisionIT group. To test whether improvements in leadership and mindfulness mediate the link between LEAP and short-term wellbeing.

Aim 2. To test whether there are treatment response variations in the effect of LEAP by youth demographic factors, thereby identifying whether LEAP can be an effective tool to support well-being for all youth.

Aim 3. To test whether LEAP is effective at improving the primary outcome of youth well-being in the medium (6-months post-baseline) and long-term (9-months post-baseline) compared to youth in the comparison EnvisionIT group.

Aim 4. To identify potential pathways influencing the link between LEAP and youth well-being, including individual factors (e.g., youth mental health, age/grade) and programmatic factors (e.g., attendance, engagement in intervention).

Aim 5. To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the LEAP intervention in terms of youth well-being compared with the EnvisionIT intervention, to estimate the potential incremental effects of the intervention.

Funding acknowledgement

This project is funded by the National Center for Complimentary and Integrative Health, Grant Number: UH3AT012530.