Original title: The #FeelThinkMove programme: feasibility and acceptability of an emotion regulation and physical activity intervention for older adolescents in South Africa
The programme was designed for at-risk adolescents aged 15 to 18 in South Africa. It brought groups together weekly for seven weeks to practise skills for handling emotions and take part in physical activity. Most participants completed it, and surveys also showed later improvements in several mental-health measures. Because there was no comparison group, the study cannot show that the programme caused those changes.
Imagine a school club that meets each week to practise handling stressful moments and to get moving. The hard part is knowing whether students will show up, enjoy it, and keep taking part. In this paper, the club stands for the seven-week programme, and attendance and feedback show whether it can work in schools; without a comparison group, they cannot prove it caused later changes.
Older adolescents at risk of mental-health problems need support that can work in their own schools and communities. This study suggests the programme could be delivered and was well received, but it does not yet show that the programme caused the reported improvements.
This was a single-arm feasibility study, so it cannot establish that the programme caused the reported changes or prove its effectiveness. The abstract says efficacy should be tested in a randomised controlled trial.
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The #FeelThinkMove programme: feasibility and acceptability of an emotion regulation and physical activity intervention for older adolescents in South Africa — Christine Smith, K. Sorsdahl, M. Berking et al. — Pilot and Feasibility Studies — doi:10.1186/s40814-026-01920-9
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.