Trial Review

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Trial registered on ANZCTR


Registration number
Help: Registration number
ACTRN12626001281381
Ethics application status
Help: Ethics application status
Approved
Date submitted
Help: Date submitted
11/10/2026
Date registered
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27/10/2026
Date last updated
Help: Date last updated
27/10/2026
Date data sharing statement initially provided
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27/10/2026
Date results provided
Help: Date results provided
27/10/2026
Type of registration
Help: Type of registration
Prospectively registered

Titles & IDs
Public title
Protocol for a Pragmatic Two-Arm Parallel-Group Multi-Site Superiority Randomised Controlled Trial Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Inspiring Brighter Futures Foundation Onwards and Upwards Youth Mentoring Program on Psychosocial and Developmental Wellbeing Among Year 9 Queensland State Secondary School Students in Australia
Scientific title
Protocol for a Pragmatic Two-Arm Parallel-Group Multi-Site Superiority Randomised Controlled Trial Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Inspiring Brighter Futures Foundation Onwards and Upwards Youth Mentoring Program on Psychosocial and Developmental Wellbeing Among Year 9 Queensland State Secondary School Students in Australia
Additional trial identifiers [1] 318631 0
Nil
Universal Trial Number (UTN)
Trial acronym
Related trial records

Health condition
Health condition(s) studied:
psychosocial wellbeing 343840 0
positive youth development 343841 0
quality of life 343842 0
developmental wellbeing 343843 0
Condition category
Condition code
Mental Health 339980 339980 0 0
Studies of normal psychology, cognitive function and behaviour

Intervention/exposure
Study type
Interventional
Description of the intervention or exposure
Intervention: Inspiring Brighter Futures Foundation Onwards and Upwards Youth Mentoring Program
The Onwards and Upwards youth mentoring program is an 8-week school-based intervention developed and delivered by Inspiring Brighter Futures Foundation (IBFF). The program is designed to support psychosocial and developmental wellbeing among secondary school students through structured, strengths-based mentoring relationships. The intervention comprises one 70-minute face-to-face session per week for eight consecutive weeks, resulting in a planned total of eight sessions. Sessions will be delivered within participating schools by an IBFF facilitator with individual mentor support incorporated into the program. Delivery of the program will be followed by the standard Onwards and Upwards program structure and materials specified by IBFF. The intervention is intended to provide young people with opportunities to identify personal strengths, develop future-orientated goals, strengthen positive relationships, build confidence and develop skills that support positive developmental trajectories. The program is designed to operate within the normal school environment and reflects the manner in which the intervention would be delivered under routine implementation conditions. The intervention manual and associated delivery materials will be retained by IBFF and will be made available to the research team where permitted by intellectual-property and governance requirements.
To support intervention fidelity and reproducibility, the characteristics of intervention delivery will be specified before trial commencement.

To protect IBFF’s intellectual property, proprietary lesson plans, workbook content and detailed facilitator materials are not reproduced in this protocol. The intervention follows a structured eight-session developmental sequence addressing the following core areas:
1. establishing connection, belonging and expectations;
2. identifying personal values and positive role models;
3. strengthening self-belief and constructive self-reflection;
4. identifying personal strengths and developing a future-oriented identity;
5. developing a personal vision;
6. establishing meaningful and achievable goals;
7. identifying obstacles, supports and strategies for resilience and perseverance; and
8. reflecting on progress and recognising achievement.
This sequence preserves the program’s progression from connection and self-understanding to future planning, goal setting, resilience and reflection. Gratitude, positive communication and mentor-supported reflection are integrated throughout the intervention.

Adherence
Intervention attendance will be monitored at each session. Strategies to support attendance will include coordination with participating schools, advance scheduling of sessions, communication with relevant school contacts and reminders regarding intervention sessions where appropriate. Attendance records will be maintained by IBFF and provided to the research team in de-identified form.
Intervention code [1] 335537 0
Treatment: Other
Description of the comparator or control
Comparator: Waitlist Control
Participants allocated to the waitlist control will continue to receive usual school services and activities available to students during the study period but will not receive the Onwards and Upwards intervention during the initial 8-week trial period. The waitlist condition has been selected to provide an ethically acceptable comparator while ensuring that student allocated to the control group are subsequently offered the intervention. Following completion of the initial 8-week evaluation period and post-intervention data collection, students in the waitlist control group will receive the Onwards and Upwards program during the next scheduled program rollout at their participating school. This approach allows the control group to receive the intervention while preserving the integrity of the initial randomised comparison. Usual school wellbeing support such as counselling or learning support and other services accessed by participants during the study period will not be withdrawn.
Control group
Active

Outcomes
Primary outcome [1] 347144 0
Psychosocial wellbeing
Timepoint [1] 347144 0
Primary and secondary outcomes will be measured at two time points. T1: Baseline (1 week prior to the intervention commencing), post-intervention (1 week after completion of all intervention activities).
Secondary outcome [1] 469135 0
mental wellbeing
Timepoint [1] 469135 0
Primary and secondary outcomes will be measured at two time points. T1: Baseline (1 week prior to the intervention commencing), post-intervention (1 week after completion of all intervention activities).
Secondary outcome [2] 469136 0
Quality of life
Timepoint [2] 469136 0
Primary and secondary outcomes will be measured at two time points. T1: Baseline (1 week prior to the intervention commencing), post-intervention (1 week after completion of all intervention activities).

Eligibility
Key inclusion criteria
Eligibility Criteria for Participants and Sites
Students will be eligible to participate if they are enrolled as a year 9 student at a participating Queensland state secondary school and are aged approximately 13 to 15 years at enrolment. Students must be able to understand the participation information provided in English sufficiently to complete the study measures, and have obtained the required parental/guardian consent and provide their own informed consent in accordance with the approved ethics procedures. Students are also eligible if they are available to participate in the 8-week Onwards and Upwards program if allocated to the treatment group. Exclusion criteria applies for students who are already participating in another structured mentoring intervention that substantially overlaps with the Onwards and Upwards program during the intervention period. Participation in routine school wellbeing, counselling, learning support or other educational services will not in itself constitute an exclusion criterion.
Participating schools will be eligible if they are Queensland state secondary schools with year 9 students, have agreed to participate in the trial and can accommodate delivery of the Onwards and Upwards program during the study period. Intervention personnel will be eligible to deliver the program if they meet IBFF’s requirements for facilitator or mentor participation, have completed any required training and safeguarding procedures, and are authorised by IBFF to deliver the intervention within participating schools.
Minimum age
13 Years
Maximum age
15 Years
Sex
Both males and females
Healthy volunteers
No
Key exclusion criteria
Students will be excluded if they are not enrolled in year 9 at a participating school; do not provide assent or do not have parent/carer consent; are unable to complete the study measures due to language, cognitive, or accessibility barriers that can not not be reasonably accommodated; had already completed the IBFF Onwards and Upwards program prior to commencement of the study period.

Study design
Purpose of the study
Prevention
Allocation to intervention
Randomised controlled trial
Procedure for enrolling a subject and allocating the treatment (allocation concealment procedures)
Participant allocation will be revealed only after completion of the baseline assessment and confirmation of eligibility and consent. The randomisation sequence will be stored in a password-protected electronic file accessible only to the designated randomisation officer. The randomisation officer will provide the randomisation sequence to the person conducting the baseline characteristics, only after collection. Following completion of baseline assessment, participants will be allocated according to the pre-specified randomisation sequence. The allocation process will be documented to provide an auditable record of enrolment and assignment.
Methods used to generate the sequence in which subjects will be randomised (sequence generation)
Eligible consenting students will be randomly allocated in a 1:1 ratio to either the Onwards and Upwards treatment group or the waitlist control group. Randomisation will occur following completion of the baseline assessment (T1), ensuring that baseline outcome data are collected before knowledge of allocation. The random allocation sequence will be generated by Research Randomizer. The sequence will be generated using a computer-based randomisation procedure in Microsoft Excel. The sequence will be prepared before participant allocation and retained in a password-protected file.
Given the multi-site nature of the study and the potential for systemic differences between participating schools, individual participants will be randomly allocated to the treatment or waitlist control groups within each participating school. Stratification by school will be used to ensure that allocation to the two study arms is balanced within sites and to minimise the potential influence of between-school differences on intervention effects.
Masking / blinding
Blinded (masking used)
Who is / are masked / blinded?


The people assessing the outcomes
The people analysing the results/data
Intervention assignment
Parallel
Other design features
Phase
Not Applicable
Type of endpoint/s
Statistical methods / analysis
Sample size estimation was undertaken in G*Power (Version 3.1) using an F-test for repeated measures ANOVA assessing the group-by-time interaction between intervention and control groups across two measurement occasions. Assuming an effect size of f = 0.145, a = 0.05, power = 80%, correlation among repeated measures of 0.5, and equal allocation, a total sample size of 96 participants was required. This effect size was selected based on recent systematic evidence examining school-based youth mentoring interventions, which has generally reported small to modest effect on youth outcomes (Tiraieyari & Krauss, 2026). Allowing for 20% attrition (Whybra et al., 2018), a minimum recruitment target of 120 participants was estimated. To ensure adequate power and account for uncertainty in attrition and effect-size assumptions, the study will aim to recruit 160 participants. The primary analysis will be conducted using linear mixed-effects models including fixed effects for group, time, and group-by-time interaction, with participant-level random effects to account for within-subject correlation.

Recruitment
Recruitment status
Not yet recruiting
Date of first participant enrolment
Anticipated
27/01/2027
Actual
Date of last participant enrolment
Anticipated
5/10/2027
Actual
Date of last data collection
Anticipated
10/12/2027
Actual
Sample size
Target
160
Accrual to date
Final
Recruitment in Australia
Recruitment state(s)
QLD

Funding & Sponsors
Funding source category [1] 323208 0
University
Name [1] 323208 0
Griffith University
Country [1] 323208 0
Australia
Funding source category [2] 323209 0
Charities/Societies/Foundations
Name [2] 323209 0
Inspiring Brighter Futures Foundation
Country [2] 323209 0
Australia
Primary sponsor type
University
Name
Griffith University
Address
Country
Australia
Secondary sponsor category [1] 326175 0
Charities/Societies/Foundations
Name [1] 326175 0
Inspiring Brighter Futures Foundation
Address [1] 326175 0
Country [1] 326175 0
Australia

Ethics approval
Ethics application status
Approved
Ethics committee name [1] 321606 0
Griffith University Human Research Ethics Committee
Ethics committee address [1] 321606 0
Ethics committee country [1] 321606 0
Australia
Date submitted for ethics approval [1] 321606 0
30/07/2026
Approval date [1] 321606 0
21/08/2026
Ethics approval number [1] 321606 0
HREC/2026/0883
Ethics committee name [2] 321607 0
Queensland Education Research Inventory
Ethics committee address [2] 321607 0
Ethics committee country [2] 321607 0
Australia
Date submitted for ethics approval [2] 321607 0
31/07/2026
Approval date [2] 321607 0
Ethics approval number [2] 321607 0
550/27/3180

Summary
Brief summary
Trial website
Trial related presentations / publications
Public notes

Contacts
Principal investigator
Name 154242 0
Ms Jaclyn Chalmers
Address 154242 0
Griffith University, 1 Parklands drive, Southport Queensland 4215
Country 154242 0
Australia
Phone 154242 0
+61 437771300
Fax 154242 0
Email 154242 0
[email protected]
Contact person for public queries
Name 154243 0
Jaclyn Chalmers
Address 154243 0
Griffith University, 1 Parklands drive, Southport Queensland 4215
Country 154243 0
Australia
Phone 154243 0
+61 437771300
Fax 154243 0
Email 154243 0
[email protected]
Contact person for scientific queries
Name 154244 0
Jaclyn Chalmers
Address 154244 0
Griffith University, 1 Parklands drive, Southport Queensland 4215
Country 154244 0
Australia
Phone 154244 0
+61 437771300
Fax 154244 0
Email 154244 0
[email protected]

Data sharing statement
Will the study consider sharing individual participant data?
No


What supporting documents are/will be available?

No Supporting Document Provided


Results publications and other study-related documents

Documents added manually
TypeIs Peer Reviewed?DOICitations or Other DetailsAttachment
ProtocolNo RCT PROTOCOL_10102026.docx
Supplementary materialsNo Appendix A Full Details of the Intervention.docx

Documents added automatically
No additional documents have been identified.