School Programs for the Prevention of Mental Health Problems and the Promotion of Psychological Well-being in Children

Abstract

(from the chapter) Schools could be crucial settings for mental health promotion, since they represents an easy-access environment with a daily and direct contact with young people and their families. Nowadays schools are conceived not only as the ideal setting for developing learning and educational processes, but also for promoting mechanisms of resilience and psychological well-being (Flament et al. 2007; Gillham et al. 2007). As a consequence, in the last 20 years many school-based programs were developed with clear and repeated evidence of positive impact (Jenkins and Barry 2007). One of the motivations for this focus on mental health in schools is the growing awareness on the rising number of children and young people who experience mental health problems (Patel et al. 2007). As to clinical interventions, the majority of school preventive interventions have been tested mainly on Western middle-class populations (Kumpfer et al. 2002). Australia is the scene of important research in this field, and some of its programs are well-established parts of children educational curriculum (see Chap. 9, Noble and McGrath, in this book). These programs are focused on resilience and prevention of youth mental health problems. Traditionally, preventive interventions could be classified as universal, selected and indicated (Mrazek and Haggerty 1994). The first ones are administered to an entire population, whereas the other two pertain to individuals who are judged to be at risk because of environmental problems (selected interventions) or individual risk factors (indicated interventions). In general, less expensive interventions with a lower potential of negative side effects are implemented universally. As the cost and risk increase, targeted interventions are often administered since they present several advantages: (a) a greater coverage of at-risk children, in comparison with clinical interventions, and (b) a more efficient allocation of resources, in comparison with universal interventions. Some preventive interventions include both universal and specific components (McMahon and Rhule 2004), in fact the best practice is to include both universal and target approach, which appear to be stronger in combination, although the exact balance has yet to be determined (Weare and Nind 2011). This chapter discusses school-based mental health interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved)