Community Galleries - Art and Children in Action: Study Protocol

Community Galleries - Art and Children in Action: Protocol for a Cluster Non-Randomized Controlled Trial of an Art-Based Intervention to Promote Child Psychological Adjustment, Self-Concept and Quality of Life

The goal of this trial is to evaluate whether a community-based visual arts intervention can improve self-concept, psychological adjustment, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in children aged between 6 and 12, from socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods.

The main questions it aims to answer are:

• Does the intervention improve children's psychological adjustment, as the primary outcome?
• Does the intervention improve self-concept and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) as the secondary outcomes?
• Is the intervention cost-effective compared to the waitlist control?

Researchers will compare children receiving the visual arts intervention (intervention group) with children not receiving the intervention (waiting list control group) to see if the program leads to measurable improvements in psychological adjustment, self-concept, and health-related quality of life.

Participants will:

• Take part in one-hour weekly visual arts sessions for nine months, led by professional artists;
• Participate in community art exhibitions at the end of the program;
• Complete questionnaires on psychological adjustment, self-concept, HRQoL, and societal resource use at baseline and post-intervention;
• Teachers/technicians will complete questionnaires on children's psychological adjustment.

Inclusion Criteria:

• To be enrolled in elementary school and registered as a participant or student in one of the 10 schools or institutions, partners of the Community Galleries project.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Cognitive deficit, neurological disease or global developmental disorder