An interventional study of Multifamily Healing Spaces in Family Relations, Psychological Trauma and Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic, sponsored by Alexandros Lordos, PhD. Completed at 5 sites in Rwanda. Open to participants aged 12 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-06-02.
Sponsored by Alexandros Lordos, PhD · Not applicable, Interventional, and Supportive care
This cluster-randomized waitlist-control trial evaluated Multifamily Healing Spaces (MFHS), a culturally adapted behavioral family intervention for genocide-affected communities in Rwanda. Community members across five districts were screened through a staged triage process. Individuals with acute or severe clinical concerns were routed to clinical referral, those with individual mental-health needs were prioritized for Resilience-Oriented Therapy, and families were invited to MFHS when at least one screened family member met criteria for family communication difficulties. Twenty eligible clusters were randomly selected and then allocated to MFHS or waitlist control. The baseline cohort included 319 family members aged 12 years or older. The trial tested whether MFHS improved family resilience, parenting, couple and youth family-system outcomes, and secondary mental health, psychosocial, community, and livelihood outcomes from baseline to immediate post-intervention endline.
MFHS is a group-based, trauma-informed, family-systems intervention developed for post-genocide Rwanda. It combines psychoeducation, structured dialogue, family communication and problem-solving exercises, parenting and couple-relational work, and youth voice and identity activities. The intervention was delivered in intergenerational, whole-family, parent-only, and youth-only formats. MFHS comprised 18 core 3-hour meeting occasions, with parent-only and youth-only sessions delivered in parallel, plus four planned follow-up sessions where relevant.
Participants were identified through a broader Rwanda societal-healing screening process. Screening was conducted at the individual level, but MFHS invitation occurred at the family level: if any screened individual met the MFHS family-communication criterion, that person's family was invited. The audited screening workbook contained 4,214 adult/community screening records. After referral/triage for severe clinical flags and other staged interventions, 839 screened individuals were staged to MFHS. At the cell level, 56 eligible cells had enough staged MFHS-screened individuals to form a group; those cells contained 794 staged MFHS-screened individuals. Twenty trial clusters were randomly selected from the eligible cells and then allocated to MFHS or waitlist control. The final baseline cohort included 319 family members in 20 clusters: 167 in MFHS clusters and 152 in waitlist-control clusters.
The primary manuscript analysis is a baseline-cohort intention-to-treat analysis. All baseline-assessed participants were retained in their final fielded cluster allocation. Missing endline outcomes for 36 participants were handled through multiple imputation. Effects were estimated with baseline-adjusted cluster-level Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) weighted by baseline cluster size, with complete-case and unweighted analyses retained as sensitivity checks.
140 studies on the registry are indexed under Psychological Trauma; 43 are open to participants now.
This study's enrollment of 319 is above the median of 80 across 108 interventional studies indexed under Psychological Trauma.
Browse Psychological Trauma studies →Alexandros Lordos, PhD is the lead sponsor of 2 studies on the registry; none are open to participants now.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.
Exclusion Criteria:
Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
A line of therapy is one course of treatment, which may combine several drugs. First-line is the first course given; second-line follows when that stops working or is not tolerated.
“Two prior lines” means two courses that count separately under the study’s rules — not simply two drugs. Ask the study team if you are unsure how yours are counted.
Informed consent
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Line of therapy
A line of therapy is one course of treatment, which may combine several drugs. First-line is the first course given; second-line follows when that stops working or is not tolerated.
“Two prior lines” means two courses that count separately under the study’s rules — not simply two drugs. Ask the study team if you are unsure how yours are counted.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Clusters allocated to Multifamily Healing Spaces (MFHS) received the behavioral family intervention during the trial evaluation period. MFHS was delivered to families in group formats using intergenerational, whole-family, parent-only, and youth-only sessions.
Behavioral: Multifamily Healing Spaces
Clusters allocated to waitlist control did not receive MFHS during the baseline-to-endline evaluation period. Families were invited to receive MFHS after the evaluation period.
MFHS is a culturally adapted, group-based family intervention for genocide-affected communities in Rwanda. It includes 18 core 3-hour meeting occasions in intergenerational, whole-family, parent-only, and youth-only formats. Sessions focus on trauma-informed psychoeducation, family communication and problem solving, shared meaning-making, parenting, couple relationships, youth voice, and family and community resilience. Groups were facilitated by trained facilitators, including a therapist and community volunteer, with facilitator training and supervision.
Change in Family Resilience
Family resilience was measured with the Walsh Family Resilience Questionnaire. The local version included 32 items forming belief systems, organization patterns, and communication/problem solving subscales. Subscale scores range from 1 to 5, with higher scores indicating stronger family resilience processes.
Time frame: Baseline to immediate post-intervention endline, up to 5 months
Change in Parenting Practices
Parenting practices were measured with the Parenting Practices Questionnaire. The local version included 20 items forming authoritative warmth/involvement, authoritative democratic participation, and authoritarian verbal hostility subscales. Subscale scores range from 1 to 5, with higher scores indicating more of the named parenting behavior.
Time frame: Baseline to immediate post-intervention endline, up to 5 months
Change in Parent Couple Functioning
Parent couple functioning was measured with parent-only measures of dyadic adjustment, dyadic happiness, sexual relationship decision-making power, and preference for boys over girls. Dyadic adjustment domains range from 0 to 3 and dyadic happiness ranges from 1 to 5, with higher scores indicating better couple functioning. Sexual relationship decision-making power ranges from 1 to 3, with higher scores indicating more respondent decision-making authority. Preference for boys over girls ranges from 1 to 4, with higher scores indicating stronger preference for boys over girls.
Time frame: Baseline to immediate post-intervention endline, up to 5 months
Change in Youth Family-System Functioning
Youth family-system functioning was measured with youth-only family enmeshment and personal accountability scores. Family enmeshment was measured with seven items ranging from 1 to 5, with higher scores indicating greater over-involvement or lower differentiation. Personal accountability was measured with eight items ranging from 1 to 4, with higher scores indicating greater youth responsibility and accountability.
Time frame: Baseline to immediate post-intervention endline, up to 5 months
Change in Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms
Post-traumatic stress symptoms were measured with four genocide-adapted items from the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition. Items were rated from 0 to 4, with higher scores indicating greater post-traumatic stress symptoms.
Time frame: Baseline to immediate post-intervention endline, up to 5 months.
Change in Borderline Traits
Borderline traits were measured with the McLean Screening Instrument for Borderline Personality Disorder. The 10 yes/no items are summed to a total score ranging from 0 to 10, with higher scores indicating more borderline-personality features.
Time frame: Baseline to immediate post-intervention endline, up to 5 months.
Change in Aggression
Aggression was measured with physical and verbal aggression items from the Aggression Questionnaire. Items were averaged to scores ranging from 1 to 5, with higher scores indicating greater aggression.
Time frame: Baseline to immediate post-intervention endline, up to 5 months.
Change in Forgiveness and Community Relations
Forgiveness and community relations were measured with forgiveness of others, social cohesion, perceived community threat, and intergenerational harmony scores. Forgiveness of others used retained items derived from the Heartland Forgiveness Scale and ranges from 1 to 4, with higher scores indicating greater forgiveness. Social cohesion ranges from 1 to 4, with higher scores indicating greater social cohesion. Perceived community threat ranges from 1 to 4, with higher scores indicating greater perceived threat. Intergenerational harmony ranges from 1 to 4, with higher scores indicating stronger intergenerational harmony.
Time frame: Baseline to immediate post-intervention endline, up to 5 months.
Change in Socioemotional Skills
Socioemotional skills were measured with locally developed emotional wellbeing, collaboration, and self-management subscales. Subscale scores range from 1 to 4. In the scoring, higher scores indicate greater socioemotional difficulty, so lower scores indicate improvement.
Time frame: Baseline to immediate post-intervention endline, up to 5 months.
Change in Livelihood and Household Economic Functioning
Livelihood and household economic functioning were measured with parent-only economic security, partner economic support, and food-insecurity indicators. Economic security and partner economic support scores range from 0 to 3, with higher scores indicating greater economic security or partner support. Short-term Food Security Consumption Coping Strategy Index scores range from 0 to 84 and long-term scores range from 0 to 12, with higher scores indicating worse food insecurity.
Time frame: Baseline to immediate post-intervention endline, up to 5 months.
Plan to share: Yes — De-identified participant-level data underlying the manuscript analyses may be shared with qualified researchers on reasonable request to the first author, subject to ethics, data-protection, and partner-organization approvals.
Supporting information: Study protocol, Statistical analysis plan, Analytic code
Time frame: Available after publication, with no predetermined end date.
Access criteria: Researchers must submit a methodologically sound proposal to the first author. Access will be subject to approval by the study team and any applicable ethics, data-protection, and partner-organization requirements. Shared data will be de-identified.
Ran from Apr 2023 to primary completion in Sep 2023, 4 months.
Of 82 non-industry interventional studies with no phase under Psychological Trauma, half reached primary completion within 24 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 12 and three quarters within 46. This study's 4 months is below that.
Counting every sponsor, half of 83 studies reached it within 24 months; a quarter within 12 and three quarters within 46.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
This study is completed, as verified in May 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
Get an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.
Sign in to followQuestions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.
Sign in to join the discussion. Reading takes no account; posting does. You choose a display name, and a pseudonym is the default.
Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.
Alexandros Lordos, PhD