Cascading an intervention to promote healthy sleep among adolescents following vocational education via a participatory approach

Sleep deprivation is high among all adolescents, but the situation in adolescents following vocational education is even more worrisome. Consequently, this group is at a higher risk of developing negative health consequences, suggesting interventions should specifically target them. In a pilot study we developed a sleep intervention package for vocational students in one school via an intensive participatory approach (i.e., actively involving the adolescents as shared decision-makers throughout the entire research process). Based on preliminary evidence, the participatory approach and the developed intervention for vocational students were concluded to be promising for future research projects. However, participatory developed interventions are local by nature, which means they cannot just be implemented in other schools. The "cascade model" proposes that a locally developed intervention can be transferred to other vocational schools if it is adapted in collaboration with the students and other stakeholders from those schools. This suggests again a participatory approach, but requires less time and effort. This highly innovative project will apply a time-efficient participatory approach to "cascade" the existing sleep intervention to other vocational schools. Both an effect evaluation (i.e., on sleeping behaviour and related determinants) and process evaluation will be conducted using quantitative and qualitative methods via a cluster randomized controlled trial.