Cascading A Healthy Sleep Intervention In Vocational Education

Cascading an Intervention to Promote Healthy Sleep Among Adolescents Following Vocational Education Via a Participatory Approach

Sleep is crucial for the mental, cognitive and physical health of adolescents. However, teenagers in 2024 sleep less and less and their sleep is of poorer quality. It is striking that adolescents who follow vocational education sleep even worse compared to peers who follow a technical or general education. It is therefore important to focus on this risk group of adolescents to reduce health differences. However, there are no previous intervention studies that focused on them.

In previous research, a healthy sleep intervention was already developed, implemented and evaluated in a participatory manner. Within this research, the investigators want to focus on evaluating the process of implementation of this intervention among first and second year secondary school students (12 to 14 year olds) and teachers from vocational education. Based on the results of this process evaluation, the investigators want to deliver this intervention as a ready-made package to Flemish secondary schools.

Inclusion Criteria:

• student in 1st or 2nd year of secondary vocational education
• teacher who helped implement the intervention

Exclusion Criteria:

• No students who participated in the co-creation process may participate in the group interview about receiving the intervention.