ABC-f_V1_09.10.25
Research type
Research Study
Full title
ABC-f: Arts for the Blues for Children and young people (9-13 year-olds) with symptoms of depression using mental health services: A feasibility study on an evidence-based creative group psychotherapy compared to treatment as usual.
IRAS ID
341218
Contact name
Vicky Karkou
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Edge Hill University
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 8 months, 30 days
Research summary
Many children and young people (CYP) need mental health support, but they do not receive the right support at the right time. We know that creative therapies can support relationships and improve CYP's wellbeing, but they are not fully used yet. We also know that CYP have a real interest in using creative approaches to support their mental health. Given how important this area is, we want to develop and test the impact of creative therapies on mental health carefully through high quality research.
We will ask 60 CYP (9-13 years old) from mental health services in three hospitals to join the study. We will separate primary from secondary school students. The first ten in each group will get a random number between 1 and 10. Depending on their number, half will join a creative therapy group, called Arts for the Blues, that uses drawing, moving, creative writing, drama and music-making. They will also continue to have usual mental health support. The other half will receive usual mental health support and a box of art materials. This process will be repeated until all 60 CYP are part of one of the two options. All CYP will complete questionnaires three times during the study. We will ask them if they understood and liked the questionnaires they completed. We will also ask those who joined the creative therapy groups to tell us which creative activities they liked. We will check how easy it was for the groups to start, what aspects of the study worked well, how many sessions CYP attended, whether therapists supported the groups as agreed and whether there were difficult moments that needed attention. We will also work with CYP to help us plan these steps.
REC name
London - Chelsea Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
25/LO/0828
Date of REC Opinion
2 Dec 2025
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion