JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Emotion regulation problems are a common contributor for delinquent behavior in adolescence. These adolescents show difficulties in recognizing, comprehending and controlling emotions, which impedes the effectiveness of current forensic treatments. In addition, forensic care often faces challenges regarding treatment engagement due to a lack of motivation and difficulties building an alliance between clients and caregivers. The use of Feelee, an app that collects and displays active and passive data, is promising to support adolescents in obtaining more insight in their emotion regulation abilities. Furthermore, the integration of smartphone applications, like Feelee, offers new perspectives to increase adolescents’ engagement and adherence in treatment.

Objective:

This study aims to describe the research protocol to evaluate the initial effects of the Feelee app in enhancing emotion regulation skills among adolescents in the forensic outpatient setting. The Feelee app, the addition of Feelee to treatment as usual (TAU), as well as the study design, a repeated Single Case Experimental Design (SCED), are discussed in detail.

Methods:

A repeated ABA-design will be applied to examine the initial effectiveness of Feelee. Both quantitative and qualitive methods will be used. In total 24 participants will be recruited from different forensic outpatient care centers. Participants will follow a 2-week baseline (phase A1), 4-week intervention (phase B) and a 2-week follow-up (phase A2) in which daily measurement on emotion regulation will be conducted.

Results:

Data-collection has started in June 2023 and is planned to be completed in December 2024. Study results will be published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at national and international conferences.

Conclusions:

This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the Feelee app in enhancing emotion regulation skills. By using a repeated ABA-design, we will get a first insight about the addition of Feelee to TAU in the forensic outpatient setting. Study strengths include the low-threshold addition, ecological validity and the use of both quantitively and qualitative research methods. Further implications for clinical practice are discussed. Clinical Trial: Central Committee on Research Involving Human Subjects NL78889.029.21, Internation Registration for Clinical Trials: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT06509360