An interventional study of Hope Groups in Mental Health and Violence Against Children, sponsored by University of Oxford. Recruiting at 1 site in Jordan. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-06-17.
Sponsored by University of Oxford · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment
This research is testing if 'Hope Groups' -- a psychosocial, mental health, parenting strengthening, and violence prevention support group program -- work to help Palestinian caregivers displaced by war.
This is a carbon-copy of a preregistration submitted to Open Science Framework on January 26, 2025.
This research is a two-armed pragmatic randomised controlled trial testing the effectiveness of 'Hope Groups' -- a psychosocial, mental health, parenting strengthening, and violence prevention support group program -- via a randomised roll-out design among Palestinian caregivers. This randomised controlled trial (RCT) will compare participants receiving Hope Groups (intervention arm) to a wait-list control group. As the intervention cannot be implemented simultaneously to all participants (due to staff constraints), a randomised roll out of the intervention enables rigorous evaluation while prioritizing delivery of potentially beneficial interventions to all war-affected participants. The unit of randomisation is the individual participant.
2,193 studies on the registry are indexed under Psychological Well-Being; 728 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 490 is above the median of 110 across 1,796 interventional studies indexed under Psychological Well-Being.
Browse Psychological Well-Being studies →University of Oxford is the lead sponsor of 812 studies on the registry; 119 are open to participants now.
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Inclusion Criteria:
The intervention arm receives the 10-session mental health and parenting intervention called 'Hope Groups'.
Behavioral: Hope Groups
The wait-list comparison group is told that they are on a wait-list to receive a mental health and parenting intervention.
A 10-session psychosocial, mental health, parenting, and violence prevention support group of 8-12 parents/caregivers.
Violence Against Children
Violence Against Children, measured via the ISPCAN Child Abuse Screening Tool for parents (ICAST-Parent). Answer options are reported on ordinal scales indicating no violence against children to frequent violence against children (0-3). Higher scores indicate higher levels of violence against children.
Time frame: All participants complete surveys at baseline and 6-weeks post-baseline (after completion of 10-session intervention). Participants in Wave 1-3 of the randomised roll-out trial additionally complete surveys at 6- and 12- months post-baseline.
Mental health
Mental health of parents/caregivers, measured via Patient Health Questionnaire - 4 (PHQ-4). Answer options are reported on ordinal scales ranging from 0-3. Higher scores indicate higher levels of depression/anxiety.
Time frame: All participants complete surveys at baseline and 6-weeks post-baseline (after completion of 10-session intervention). Participants in Wave 1-3 of the randomised roll-out trial additionally complete surveys at 6- and 12- months post-baseline.
Parenting Practices
Parenting Practices, measured via Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (APQ). Answer options are reported in days of occurrence in the past week (ranging 0-7). Higher levels indicate higher usage of positive parenting practices.
Time frame: All participants complete surveys at baseline and 6-weeks post-baseline (after completion of 10-session intervention). Participants in Wave 1-3 of the randomised roll-out trial additionally complete surveys at 6- and 12- months post-baseline.
Child behavioural issues
Child behavioural issues and child well-being, measured via Child and Adolescent Behavior Inventory (CABI). Answers are reported on ordinal response scales ranging from 0-3. Higher scores indicate higher internalising and externalising problems in children.
Time frame: All participants complete surveys at baseline and 6-weeks post-baseline (after completion of 10-session intervention). Participants in Wave 1-3 of the randomised roll-out trial additionally complete surveys at 6- and 12- months post-baseline.
Post-traumatic growth
Post-traumatic growth is an important element of the mental health of parents/caregivers, measured via the Post-Traumatic Growth Inventory, which uses ordinal answer responses ranging from 1-5. Higher scores indicate higher levels of post-traumatic growth.
Time frame: All participants complete surveys at baseline and 6-weeks post-baseline (after completion of 10-session intervention). Participants in Wave 1-3 of the randomised roll-out trial additionally complete surveys at 6- and 12- months post-baseline.
Blood Pressure
Caregiver/parent stress and caregiver/parent physical health, measured via blood pressure reading (in Jordan only)
Time frame: Baseline and 6-weeks post-baseline (after completion of 10-session intervention)
Caregiver Physical Health: Heart Rate
Caregiver/parent stress and caregiver/parent physical health, measured via heart rate reading (in Jordan only)
Time frame: Baseline and 6-weeks post-baseline (after completion of 10-session intervention).
PDFs hosted by the registry, ClinicalTrials.gov.
Plan to share: Yes — All outcomes and basic demographic information.
Supporting information: Study protocol, Statistical analysis plan, Informed consent form, Analytic code
Time frame: Data can be made available upon request, in accordance with data privacy policies. Fully anonymous data will be posted on Open Science Framework.
Access criteria: Data can be made available upon request to the Sydney Tucker (sydney.tucker@spi.ox.ac.uk), in accordance with data privacy policies, after the conclusion of the RCT (July 2026). After the primary, secondary, and tertiary trial outcomes have been published, fully anonymous data will be posted on Open Science Framework.
Data sharing details ↗ · osf.io
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