TY - JOUR
T1 - Adaptation of a school-based mental health program for adolescents in Vietnam
AU - La, Nga Linh
AU - Shochet, Ian
AU - Tran, Thach
AU - Fisher, Jane
AU - Wurfl, Astrid
AU - Nguyen, Nga
AU - Orr, Jayne
AU - Stocker, Ruby
AU - Nguyen, Huong
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council [GNT1158429]; the Vietnam National Foundation for Science and Technology Development [NHMRC.108.01-2018.02]. TT is supported by a Monash Strategic Bridging Fellowship; JF is supported by a Finkel Professorial Fellowship, which is funded by Finkel Foundation. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The authors are especially grateful to the mental health practitioners, teachers and adolescents who participated in this research.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 La et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2022/8
Y1 - 2022/8
N2 - Introduction Cultural adaptation of a school-based mental health intervention developed in a high-income country is a cost-effective method to address the mental health needs of adolescents in resource-constrained settings. The aim of this study was to translate and culturally adapt the Resourceful Adolescent Program for Adolescents (RAP-A) for adolescents attending high school in Vietnam. Methods The translation and adaptation were conducted using a five-step process including (1) initial stakeholder consultation, (2) forward translation, (3) backward translation, (4) adaptation, and (5) finalising the adapted version. An adaptation panel was established, including the RAP-A authors and mental health and public health experts from Australia, and psychology and public health experts from Vietnam. The panel collaborated closely with a group of stakeholders, including bilingual psychologists and psychiatrists, high school (grades 10–12) students and teachers throughout the adaptation process. Results The adapted version of RAP-A was named ‘Happy House’. Happy House was adapted to be delivered in larger groups and in longer sessions than the RAP-A. The 11 sessions in RAP-A were restructured to 6 sessions in Happy House. Major changes were not required for any of the materials. However, some content, illustrations and videos were adapted to be more feasible for the school context and to enhance the comprehensibility, acceptability and appropriateness. Conclusion Happy House has great potential to be relevant, comprehensible and acceptable for Vietnamese adolescents. Further research is warranted to examine the relevance, comprehensibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of this program on adolescents’ mental health before advocating for scaling up program delivery in high schools throughout Vietnam.
AB - Introduction Cultural adaptation of a school-based mental health intervention developed in a high-income country is a cost-effective method to address the mental health needs of adolescents in resource-constrained settings. The aim of this study was to translate and culturally adapt the Resourceful Adolescent Program for Adolescents (RAP-A) for adolescents attending high school in Vietnam. Methods The translation and adaptation were conducted using a five-step process including (1) initial stakeholder consultation, (2) forward translation, (3) backward translation, (4) adaptation, and (5) finalising the adapted version. An adaptation panel was established, including the RAP-A authors and mental health and public health experts from Australia, and psychology and public health experts from Vietnam. The panel collaborated closely with a group of stakeholders, including bilingual psychologists and psychiatrists, high school (grades 10–12) students and teachers throughout the adaptation process. Results The adapted version of RAP-A was named ‘Happy House’. Happy House was adapted to be delivered in larger groups and in longer sessions than the RAP-A. The 11 sessions in RAP-A were restructured to 6 sessions in Happy House. Major changes were not required for any of the materials. However, some content, illustrations and videos were adapted to be more feasible for the school context and to enhance the comprehensibility, acceptability and appropriateness. Conclusion Happy House has great potential to be relevant, comprehensible and acceptable for Vietnamese adolescents. Further research is warranted to examine the relevance, comprehensibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of this program on adolescents’ mental health before advocating for scaling up program delivery in high schools throughout Vietnam.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85135424673&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0271959
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0271959
M3 - Article
C2 - 35925878
AN - SCOPUS:85135424673
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 17
JO - PLoS ONE
JF - PLoS ONE
IS - 8
M1 - e0271959
ER -
