Description

Emotional disorders are highly prevalent during adolescence, and significantly impact the development and well-being of adolescents. The World Health Organization defines preventive interventions and promotion of adolescent mental health as a priority. Nevertheless, many adolescents lack access to psychological interventions, leading to short, medium, and long-term impacts. The school setting is a privileged context for the implementation of universal preventive interventions as it offers accessibility to all adolescents. The Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders in Adolescents (UP-A; Ehrenreich-May et al., 2018), a transdiagnostic intervention, has demonstrated effectiveness in reducing anxiety and depressive symptoms and improving quality of life in this population. Preventive transdiagnostic interventions may have better results in the long term. The main goal is to assess the efficacy of UP-A as a preventive intervention. The goal is prevent emotional symptoms and improve mental well-being, assessing changes in transdiagnostic factors, including cognitive flexibility, mindfulness, and distress tolerance. Participants are adolescents aged 11-18 that frequent 7-9 grade. The intervention will be delivered by clinical psychologists. The design is a cluster randomized controlled trial with two groups: control group and experimental group. Pre- and post-intervention, and follow-up at 3, 6 and 12 months will be carried out.

All procedures were approved by the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Coimbra and the School Boards authorized the data collection protocol to be implemented in school contexts. Informed consent from adolescents and their parents/legal guardians will be required. Adolescents and their parents/legal guardians will be informed that the participation is voluntary, confidential and that they can decline to participate at any time without any consequence.