Promoting Mental Health in Young Children - a Dialogue Based Approach in Kindergartens

ClinicalTrials.gov ID

NCT06471816

Lead Sponsor

Haukeland University HospitalOTHER

Overall Status

Recruiting

Study Type

Interventional

Phase

Not Applicable

Enrollment

200Estimated

Last Update Posted

Oct 1, 2025Actual

Start Date

Jan 1, 2024Actual

Primary Completion Date

Jun 30, 2029Estimated

Completion Date

Jun 30, 2029Estimated

Official Title

Promoting Mental Health in Young Children - a Dialogue Based Approach in Kindergartens: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Brief Summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if the novel Dialogue Based Early Detection (DBED) method can prevent impaired mental health in kindergarten children. It will also learn about the screening properties of DBED to identify children with impaired mental health, if DBED facilitates early interventions, and if DBED is well accepted and sustainable in an ordinary kindergarten setting.

The main questions it aims to answer are:

• Do children in kindergartens where DBED is implemented develop better mental health scores than children in kindergarten where DBED is not implemented?
• How well identifies DBED kindergarten children with impaired mental health compared to a traditional screening instrument (the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire)?
• What is the impact of DBED on activation of interventions for mental health problems?
• What is the social validity of DBED?

Researchers will compare outcomes in kindergartens where DBED is implemented with outcomes in kindergartens where it's not.

• During the last three years of kindergarten attendance participants (parents of kindergarten children) in the intervention kindergartens will take part in the biannual DBED parent-teacher meetings, while participants in the control kindergartens will take part in traditional parent-teacher meetings.
• Twice a year all participants will answer questionnaires of the child's mental health and parental stress during the follow-up period (3 years in kindergarten and 2 first years in school).
• Participants in the intervention kindergartens will answer user satisfaction questionnaires after every parent-teacher meeting.
• The kindergarten teachers will report on type and time of supportive interventions for each participating child during the follow-up period in kindergarten.

• Child Behavior
• Child Development

• Dialogue Based Early Detection
• Traditional parent-teacher meeting

Ages Eligible for Study

Child (0-17)

Sexes Eligible for Study

All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

• Attendance in kindergarten
• Inclusion during the first half-year of the third last year in kindergarten

Exclusion Criteria:

• Parents don't communicate in Norwegian or English

Primary Purpose

Prevention

Allocation

Randomized

Interventional Model

Parallel Assignment

Masking

None (Open Label)

Lead Sponsor

Haukeland University HospitalOTHER

Collaborators

University of BergenOTHER

Western Norway University of Applied SciencesOTHER

hopland@eventusbarnehage.no+47 959 92 323

trond.heggestad@oygarden.kommune.no+47 917 15 563

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