Youth Engagement Pre-Conditioning
Observational StudyClinical Trial
Delivering cognitive behavioral therapy to non-clinical adolescent populations fails if facilitators do not establish interpersonal trust and psychological safety before introducing skill modules.
Picture this
Facilitators run structured trust-building and group dynamics exercises prior to teaching psychological concepts. This acts like warming up athletes with light stretching and team-building drills before a competitive match, preventing physical strain and mental resistance when intense exertion begins.
What the evidence says
Integrating structured youth engagement exercises enabled lay teacher-facilitators to build an atmosphere of trust, with qualitative surveys showing nearly 100.0% teacher willingness to participate in future implementations.
- Who was studied
- N = 128 teacher-facilitators delivering CBT workshops to 3,516 treatment students across 20 federal upper secondary schools in Mexico City.
- How
- Mixed-methods implementation design incorporating 2-day specialized Youth Engagement training for master trainers by Youth Guidance (BAM Chicago), followed by 25–35 hours of teacher training.
What to do
Precede structured cognitive behavioral therapy sessions with dedicated trust-building and group dynamic exercises to establish psychological safety for adolescent participants.
From the source
"The socio-emotional intervention was designed by the Faculty of Psychology at the 'Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México' (UNAM) and it combines conventional cognitive behavioral therapy with 'youth engagement' strategies."
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