Trial reportPrevention science : the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research2020
Building Emotional Resilience in Youth in Lebanon: a School-Based Randomized Controlled Trial of the FRIENDS Intervention.
Trial report in Prevention science : the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 39 citations in OpenAlex.
- Strength-based capacity-building interventions to promote adolescents' mental health: A systematic review and meta-analysis.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Assessing fidelity measurements in school-based anxiety, depression and suicide prevention programs: a systematic review.BMC public health · 2025Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Psychological and social interventions for the promotion of mental health in people living in low- and middle-income countries affected by humanitarian crises.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2024Pooled it
- Effectiveness of resilience-based interventions in schools for adolescents: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Pooled it
- Efficacy of school-based interventions for mental health problems in children and adolescents in low and middle-income countries: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Pooled it
- The 'FRIENDS for Life' emotional health programme: Differential impact for those at risk.The British journal of educational psychology · 2026Trial
- Meta-Analysis: The Effectiveness of Universal School-Based Mental Health Programs for Children and Adolescents.JAACAP open · 2026Article
- Youth mental health treatment gap in lebanon: correlates of barriers to accessing child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS).Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2026Article
- Effectiveness of resilience-based interventions to promote mental well-being among secondary school children: a systematic review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Review
- Resilience, social support, and participation among adolescents in conflict situations.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- A cross-lagged network analysis of multisystemic factors influencing adolescent depressive symptoms: considering gender differences.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2025Article
- A Framework for School-Based Mental Health Programs in Conflict Zones.Community mental health journal · 2025Article
- Efficacy of a school-based mental health intervention among Zambian youth: a cluster-randomized controlled trial.Global mental health (Cambridge, England) · 2025Article
- Network characteristics of emotional resilience, anxiety, and depression among Chinese adolescents and their gender differences.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Promoting Peer Connectedness Through Social-Emotional Learning: Evaluating the Intervention Effect Mechanisms and Implementation Factors of a Social-Emotional Learning Programme for 9 to 12-Year-Olds.Journal of youth and adolescence · 2024Article
- Effectiveness of a resilience school-based intervention in adolescents at risk: a cluster-randomized controlled trial.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Validation of the Arabic version of the resilience scale for adolescents (READ).BMC psychiatry · 2023Article
- Tackling the mental-health crisis in young people.Nature · 2022Article
- Design-Based Approaches to Causal Replication Studies.Prevention science : the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In Lebanon, approximately one in four adolescents suffers from a psychiatric disorder. Alarmingly, 94% of adolescents with a mental disorder have not sought any treatment. This study assessed the effectiveness of an evidence-based school-based universal mental health intervention (the FRIENDS program) in reducing depression and anxiety symptoms in middle school students in Lebanon. A total of 280 6th graders aged 11-13 years were recruited from 10 schools in Beirut. Schools were matched on size and tuition and randomly assigned to intervention or control groups. The FRIENDS program was translated into Arabic, adapted, and then implemented by trained mental health professionals during 10 classroom sessions over 3 months. We assessed sociodemographic and relevant psychological symptoms by self-report, using the Scale for Childhood Anxiety and Related Disorders (SCARED), Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (MFQ), and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), at baseline. We re-administered these scales at 3 months post-intervention. There was a significant time × group interaction for the SDQ emotional score (p = 0.011) and total MFQ score (p = 0.039) indicating significant improvement in depressive and emotional symptoms in the intervention group. Subgroup analysis by gender showed a significant time × group interaction for the total SCARED score (p = 0.025) in females but not in males (p = 0.137), consistent with a reduction of anxiety symptoms in this stratum of the intervention group as compared with the control group. The FRIENDS program was effective in reducing general emotional and depressive symptoms among middle school students in this Lebanese study population. This intervention provides an opportunity for promoting mental health in Lebanese schools and reducing the treatment gap in mental health care.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.