Adolescents' Empowerment for Mental Health Literacy in School: A Pilot Study on ProLiSMental Psychoeducational Intervention

Tânia Morgado, Luís Loureiro, Maria Antónia Rebelo Botelho, Maria Isabel Marques, José Ramón Martínez-Riera, Pedro Melo, Tânia Morgado, Luís Loureiro, Maria Antónia Rebelo Botelho, Maria Isabel Marques, José Ramón Martínez-Riera, Pedro Melo

Abstract

Adolescence is a critical life phase for mental health and anxiety an emerging challenge for adolescents. Psychoeducational interventions to promote mental health literacy (MHL) on anxiety in adolescents are needed. This study aimed to test the primary outcome of a future full-scale trial: improvement of adolescents' anxiety MHL components on recognition, prevention strategies, and self-help strategies. A sample of 38 adolescents, 24 (63.2%) females and 14 (36.8%) males, with an average age of 14.50 years (SD = 0.89) participated in this study. Each class was allocated to the intervention group (IG, n = 21) or the waiting list control group (WLCG, n = 17) with single-blinded randomization. MHL was assessed using the QuALiSMental. The ProLiSMental psychoeducational intervention consists of four or eight weekly sessions of 90 or 45 min for adolescents, using different active pedagogical methods and techniques. There also are initial and final sessions with adolescents, legal guardians, and teachers. There was a significant improvement with a small to relatively strong effect size in many dimensions of anxiety MHL components. This study suggests the progression to the full-scale trial and values the important role of mental health and psychiatric nurses in the adolescents' empowerment for MHL in schools.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03872817.

Keywords: adolescent; anxiety; health education; health literacy; mental health; mental health nursing; pilot study; school nursing.

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Participants’ flow diagram through the phases of the quasi-cluster randomized controlled trial.

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