Playback Theatre Program for Adolescents and Youth

Recruiting now · Not applicable

Conditions studied: Depresssion

In brief

The research aims to investigate the effectiveness of playback theatre program on improving mental health for adolescents and youth. This study adopts a multicentre randomized control trial two arms research design. A randomised controlled trial will compare a typical 7-session therapeutic song-writing program with a waitlist-control group to determine whether the 7-session playback theatre program can produce better outcomes for young people with depressive symptoms, including improvement in depressive symptoms, self-stigma, self-esteem, sense of hope and social support at post-intervention. The 7-session playback theatre program will be delivered by trained and experienced social workers and helping professionals who are familiar with music therapy. A research staff, who does not involve in the group allocation and delivery of group intervention, conduct the intervention outcomes assessment of the participants before and after the intervention. Standardized assessment tools are used to assess the intervention outcomes. The ethical considerations of this study were reviewed and approved by the Human and Artefacts Ethics Sub-Committee of the City University of Hong Kong in 2026.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT07548463

Run by

City University of Hong Kong

People needed

120

Starts

2026-09-01

Expected to finish

2027-10-31

Last updated by the study team

2026-04-23

Who can join

Age: 13 and older, up to 24. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: accepted.

You may qualify if…

• aged between 13 to 24 years;
• having mild to moderate depression and/or anxiety as assessed using a standardized assessment tool, i.e. Chinese Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-Youth (DASS-Y) with a DASS-Y Depression score between 5 and 12;
• service users of The Salvation Army social service unit; and
• giving informed consent to this research work. For those aged below 18, parental consent will be obtained.

You may not qualify if…

• Those with severe depression (i.e. a DASS-Y Depression score ≥ 13) and/or severe anxiety (i.e. a DASS-Y Anxiety score ≥ 8) are excluded from this study.

Where it is running

• City University of Hong Kong — Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong (enrolling)

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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