Culturally-adapted Resourceful Adolescent Program to improve the mental health of adolescents in Vietnam

The Resourceful Adolescent Program for adolescents (RAP-A) is a school-based program designed to promote factors that protect against adolescent depression and other mental health problems. It is a strengths-based program, focussed on developing strengths rather than on the pathology. The intervention for this trial is Happy House, the culturally-adapted RAP-A for adolescents in Vietnam. Happy House will be delivered through six workshop-style sessions, with a focus on the main components of RAP-A: personal strengths, managing stress, cognitive style, problem solving, support networks and interpersonal relationships.

The intervention is targeted at Year 10 students at selected schools in Hanoi, Vietnam. It is in addition to the usual school curriculum. The sessions will be delivered by core facilitators: teachers from the selected schools and members of the research team in Vietnam. The RAP authors will provide a training course in English for the research team. Then, the research team will train the core facilitators about the RAP-A principles and how to facilitate the sessions in Vietnamese. Both training courses will run for 2 days, ~8 hours/day, and the training will be conducted roughly 3 weeks before the intervention will begin. Training materials will be designed and developed specifically for this study. The core facilitators will be provided with a Group Leader’s Manual, which has detailed information about how to run each session, as well as all materials and equipment for the sessions (e.g. paper, pens, visual aids, videos, etc.). The Group Leader's Manual is based on the manual developed by the original RAP authors (http://www.rap.qut.edu.au/), but has been adapted for this study and cultural setting.

Year 10 classes in Vietnam typically have 35-45 students. In each class, students participating in the intervention will be split into two groups. Thus, the intervention will be run in groups of ~15-20 students. Happy House involves 6 x 90-minute sessions, once a week for six weeks. The sessions are delivered face-to-face by the core facilitators, in classrooms at the selected schools. Participants will receive a Student Workbook to use during the sessions. Similarly to the Group Leader's Manual, the Student Workbook is based on the manual developed by the original RAP authors (http://www.rap.qut.edu.au/), but has been adapted for this study and cultural setting. Between each session, students will be sent text messages, to reinforce key parts of the program.

Adherence will be assessed by the core facilitators, who will record the participants’ attendance at each session. Fidelity will be reported by the research team if any changes are made when implementing the protocol.