School and public administrators' awareness of mental health, public policy, and youth mental health in Lithuania.

Last registered on August 18, 2022

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

School and public administrators' awareness of mental health, public policy, and youth mental health in Lithuania.

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0007241

Initial registration date

March 29, 2021

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

March 29, 2021, 10:51 AM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Last updated

August 18, 2022, 8:45 AM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Country

Lithuania

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Daniel Rogger

Affiliation

World Bank

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2021-03-08

End date

2023-08-31

Keywords

Education, Governance, Health

Additional Keywords

bureaucrats, public services, mental health, information

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

We study the effect of different types of information treatments on: participation in training programs aimed at strengthening youth Mental Health; attitudes to mental health; policy-making preferences; and student outcomes.

Intervention 1: We randomize ~1000 school administrators into three intervention groups, varying the nature of the information that they receive by email communication and the identity of the sender.

Intervention 2: We randomize ~1100 public administrators into three intervention groups, varying the nature of the information that they receive in the survey and the identity of the sender.

We use administrative data for analysis as well as data collected in the form of a baseline survey on ~240 randomly selected schools (~240 school principals and ~950 school staff) and ~1100 public administrators. The study will inform the extent to which information increases frontline participation in centrally provided programs and attitudes towards mental health, and whether the identity of the messenger matters for the efficacy of such information treatments; as well as the extent to which information shifts behavior and attitudes of public administrators.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Rogger, Daniel. 2022. "School and public administrators' awareness of mental health, public policy, and youth mental health in Lithuania.." AEA RCT Registry. August 18. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.7241-1.2000000000000003

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Intervention 1:

We will randomize ~1,000 school administrators to receive one of three intervention groups: (i) "Top-down email" (described below), (ii) "Bottom-up email" (described below); (iii) No email.

Top-down email: School administrators will receive an email from the Ministry of Health with information on the online training. The email will include the a selection facts on youth mental health and an accompanying graph; a text with encouragement for the principals to encourage teachers to enroll in the training; and a link to enrollment.

Bottom-up email: School administrators will receive an email from the School Student Union in Lithuania with information on the online training. The email will include the a selection facts on youth mental health and an accompanying graph; a text with encouragement for the principals to encourage teachers to enroll in the training; and a link to enrollment.

No email: school administrators will receive status quo information about the training. Targeted information may be shared with administrators at a later point in time.

~240 of the ~1,000 schools will be randomly selected to participate in a baseline survey, also targeted at other school staff and public administrators (~240 principals and ~950 school staff across ~240 schools; ~1,100 public administrators across ~85 institutions). Participants may also receive reinforcing text or email messages following the survey.

Intervention 2:

We will randomize ~1,100 public administrators to be shown an email at the beginning of the baseline questionnaire. The emails will be identical to those outlined in Intervention 1. The treatments are as follows:

Top-down email: as described above

Bottom-up email: as described above

Status quo: public administrators will be briefly shown the email text of T1 and T2 of Intervention 1 -- free of any sender identity -- to check whether they had received or seen it before. This serves as a check for dissemination and spillovers.

Intervention Start Date

2021-03-08

Intervention End Date

2021-09-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Participation and interest in government teacher-training program; attitudes towards mental health; budget priorities; education and school-behavior outcomes.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

We will randomize ~1,000 school administrators into one of three intervention groups. ~240 of these 1,000 administrators will also be part of a baseline questionnaire and the survey-based experiment, described below. This experiment aims to answer two questions. First, does the provision of information affect the degree to which school administrators disseminate information on the government training program to school staff and encourage their participation; and the degree to which teachers enroll in, participate, perform, and complete the training? Second, does the identity of the “messenger” differentially impact these outcomes? To answer these questions, we will randomize email-recipients into different groups with varying identities of the email-sender: top-down (the sender will be the Ministry of Health); bottom-up (the sender will be the School Student Union); and a control group that will receive no email.

In addition, as part of the baseline survey exercise, covering ~2,500 respondents in schools and the public administration, we will randomize ~1100 public administrators respondents will be randomized to receive a survey-based information treatment during the survey. Follow-up information will be provided via telephone or email, with the contact information to be provided by respondent choice during the baseline questionnaire, and will contain reinforcing information and presentation of the facts provided in the welcome videos. This experiment seeks to answer two questions.

First, does the provision of information itself, independent of "messenger" identity, affect the knowledge of mental disorder prevalence, stigma towards mental health, budget priorities, and interest in capacity-building reported by respondents? Second, does the identity of the “messenger” differentially impact these outcomes?

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

Randomization will be done on a computer using statistical software.

Randomization Unit

Individual (school principal; teacher; public administrators)

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

~240 school administrators and ~950 school staff across ~240 schools; ~1,100 public administrators across ~85 administrative institutions

Sample size: planned number of observations

~240 school administrators and ~950 school staff across ~240 schools; ~1,100 public administrators across ~85 administrative institutions

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

333 school administrators to "Top-down email"; 333 to "Bottom-up email"; 334 to "Control email".
375 public administrators to ""Top-down email"; 375 to "Bottom-up email"; 375 to "Control email".

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB