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| [ Print-friendly version ] |
| Roots of Empathy (ROE): a schools-based programme for improving social and emotional wellbeing outcomes among 8-9 year olds in Northern Ireland |
| ISRCTN | ISRCTN07540423 |
| ClinicalTrials.gov identifier | |
| Public title | Roots of Empathy (ROE): a schools-based programme for improving social and emotional wellbeing outcomes among 8-9 year olds in Northern Ireland |
| Scientific title | A cluster randomised controlled trial evaluation and cost-effectiveness analysis of the Roots of Empathy (ROE) schools-based programme for improving social and emotional wellbeing outcomes among 8-9 year olds in Northern Ireland |
| Acronym | ROE |
| Serial number at source | N/A |
| Study hypothesis |
1. What is the impact of the programme at post-test and at one, two and three years following the end of the programme on a number of specific social and emotional wellbeing outcomes for participating children?
2. Is the programme having a differential impact on children depending on: 2.1. Their gender? 2.2. The number of siblings they have? 2.3. Their socio-economic status and/or the socio-economic profile of the school? 3. Does the impact of the programme vary significantly with any variations in implementation fidelity found? 4. What is the cost effectiveness of the programme in reducing cases of aggressive behaviour and increasing prosocial behaviour among school-aged children? |
| Lay summary | Lay summary under review |
| Ethics approval | School of Education Research Ethics Committee, Queen’s University Belfast, 2 September 2011 |
| Study design | Cluster randomised controlled trial and cost effectiveness analysis |
| Countries of recruitment | United Kingdom |
| Disease/condition/study domain | Social and emotional well being |
| Participants - inclusion criteria |
1. All primary schools located in the four participating Health and Social Care Trust areas (Belfast, South Eastern, Southern and Western)
2. All children who are entering Year 5 (aged 8-9) at baseline in the participating schools |
| Participants - exclusion criteria |
1. Special Schools
2. Schools with Year 5 (aged 8-9) classes that have less that 10 children 3. Schools already implementing the ROE programme |
| Anticipated start date | 01/09/2011 |
| Anticipated end date | 31/12/2015 |
| Status of trial | Ongoing |
| Patient information material | Not available in web format, please use the contact details below to request a patient information sheet |
| Target number of participants | 1,260 |
| Interventions |
Roots of Empathy (ROE) is a 27 lesson programme that runs over a school year and is based around a monthly classroom visit by an infant and parent, typically recruited from the local community, whom the class 'adopts' at the start of the school year. During these monthly visits children learn about the baby’s growth and development via interactions and observations with the baby. Each month a trained ROE instructor, who is not the class teacher, visits the classroom three times for:
1. A pre-family visit 2. The visit of the parent and infant 3. Post-family visit Instructors undergo a total of four days intensive training that is delivered directly by a specialist ROE trainer from Canada. The specialist trainer also provides on-going mentoring support via regular telephone calls to all instructors. In addition, on-going support is also available to each instructor through each Health and Social Care Trust’s lead ROE coordinator. Each ROE lesson provides opportunities to discuss and learn about the different dimensions of empathy, namely: 1. Emotion identification and explanation 2. Perspective-taking 3. Emotional sensitivity The parent-infant visit serves as a springboard for discussions about understanding feelings, infant development and effective parenting practices. ROE seeks to develop children’s social and emotional understanding, promote prosocial behaviours and decrease aggressive behaviours, and increase children’s knowledge about infant development and effective parenting practices. The control group will not receive the ROE programme between October 2011 and June 2012. Instead they will continue with usual classroom activities and practice. In this regard, all schools in Northern Ireland, as part of the statutory requirements of the Revised Curriculum, deliver Personal Development and Mutual Understanding (PDMU). The developers of the curriculum, CCEA (Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment), describe PDMU as: "Encouraging each child to become personally, emotionally, socially and physically effective to lead healthy, safe and fulfilled lives and to become confident, independent and responsible citizens, making informed and responsible choices and decisions throughout their lives". PDMU is delivered using active and participatory learning methods, follows an issues-based approach and aims to explore pupils’ and society’s attitudes and beliefs.This evaluation will therefore examine the effect of Roots of Empathy above and beyond any effects of the PDMU part of the curriculum, which is also focused on the social and emotional development of the child. Control schools will be offered the ROE programme the following year for their 8-9 year olds. The control schools will, however, be required not to deliver the programme to children participating in the trial, who move into Years 6 and 7, to avoid their exposure to the intervention. |
| Primary outcome measure(s) |
1. Increases in prosocial behaviour and decreases in aggressive behaviour measured using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). There are three versions of the SDQ: parent, teacher and child and all three versions will be used to triangulate the data
2. The teacher and parent versions will be administered to teachers and parents at every data collection sweep 3. The child version is only suitable for administration with children aged 11 and above and so this version will be used in the final two data sweeps (June 2014 and June 2015). 4. Additional measures: 4.1. Child Behaviour Scale 4.2. Olweus bully/victim questionnaire 4.3. Class detention rates |
| Secondary outcome measure(s) |
1. Increase in understanding of infant crying - Infant Facial Expression of Emotions Scale
2. Increase in ability to recognise emotions - Emotional Recognition Questionnaire 3. Increase in empathy - Interpersonal Reactivity Index 4. Increase in ability to regulate emotions - Child Anger Management Scale 5. Increased quality of life - CHU 9D 6. Increased educational attainment - InCAS standardised maths and English scores that all schools in Northern Ireland now collect |
| Sources of funding | National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) - Public Health Research Programme (UK) ref: 10/3006 |
| Trial website | |
| Publications | |
| Contact name | Prof Paul Connolly |
| Address |
School of Education
Queen's University Belfast |
| City/town | Belfast |
| Zip/Postcode | BT7 1NN |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sponsor | Queen's University Belfast (UK) |
| Address | University Road |
| City/town | Belfast |
| Zip/Postcode | BT7 1NN |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sponsor website: | http://www.qub.ac.uk/ |
| Date applied | 18/10/2011 |
| Last edited | 21/12/2011 |
| Date ISRCTN assigned | 21/12/2011 |
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| © 2012 ISRCTN unless otherwise stated. | |
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