While mental health interventions are important for people with various disorders, mental health programs can also be helpful for healthy people. Therefore, there is substantial interest in mental health programs that can benefit the general population. One study investigated the use of a school-based program in Italy (Gigantesco et al., 2015). This article will briefly present the methods used in that article as well as its findings.
Methods
This study investigated a mental health program for use in secondary schools in Italy. The participants in this study consisted of 308 students between 14 and 18 years old spread across 18 classrooms covering ninth, 10th, and 11th grades. Of these participants, 176 were in 10 classrooms that were assigned to the intervention group while 132 were in eight classrooms that were assigned to the control group. The classrooms in the control group continued as usual.
The program used in the intervention group “focused mainly on teaching skills that enable students to cope satisfactorily with stress in their life” and drew inspiration from Goleman’s emotional intelligence model and Falloon’s psychoeducational approach:
- Goleman’s model considers five domains of emotional intelligence:
- Knowing your emotions
- Managing your own emotions
- Using emotions to motivate yourself
- Recognizing the emotions of other people
- Managing relationships
- Falloon’s psychoeducational approach trains psychiatric patients and their families to solve the most stressful problems in their lives.
Inspired by Falloon’s approach, the program involves a six-step problem solving process:
- The problem is stated clearly
- All potential solutions are brainstormed and listed
- Each possible solution is evaluated in terms of its main advantages and disadvantages
- The most practical solution is chosen
- Implementation is carefully planned
- The outcome of the implementation efforts is reviewed and refined until the problem has been resolved
The program then goes on to encourage:
- Defining personal goals
- Adopting effective communication skills
- Using negotiation
- Coping with stress
- Coping with anger
- Resolving conflict
The program does not describe any techniques in detail, but does teach about common mental health issues to raise awareness. It was implemented in the high schools through exercises done at school (20 one-hour sessions) and home manuals encouraging students to use the teachings of the program at home. The study continued for two months, and the following measures were taken at baseline and upon completion of the study:
- The Regulatory Emotional Self-Efficacy Scales (RESE), which assesses perceived self-efficacy in regulating negative emotions and expressing positive emotions
- The Satisfaction With Life Scale, which measures cognitive well-being and life satisfaction.
- Ryff’s Scales of Psychological Well-Being (PWBS), which measure six dimensions of psychological well-being:
- Autonomy
- Environmental mastery
- Personal growth
- Positive relations with others
- Purpose in life
- Self-acceptance
Results
The following results were obtained:
- The participants in the intervention group showed significantly increased psychological well-being and life satisfaction, which was not the case in the control group.
- The participants in the intervention group showed increased self-efficacy in regulating negative emotions, though the change was not significant. There was no change in the control group.
Ultimately, the program significantly increased psychological well-being and life satisfaction.
Wrapping up
The results of this study indicate that a fairly brief (two months) mental health intervention can lead to significant mental health improvements in secondary school students. This program was administered to a general population, which is promising because the results suggest that the program can be universally beneficial. Therefore, further research should continue to investigate programs like this that can be beneficial for all people.
References
Gigantesco, A., Del Re, D., Cascavilla, I., Palumbo, G., De Mei, B., Cattaneo, C., Giovannelli, I., Bella, A. (2015). A Universal Mental Health Promotion Programme for Young People in Italy. BioMed Research International, 2015(1), 345926. doi: 10.1155/2015/345926.
