Abstract
Mental health in schools has attracted a lot of attention in recent years. Positive Psychology Interventions (PPIs) in secondary schools have been shown to improve mental health outcomes for students. Previous PPIs have tended to be delivered by trained Psychology specialists or have tended to focus on a single aspect of Positive Psychology such as Mindfulness. The current study involved 2 phases. Phase 1 was a pilot PPI, delivered by current university students in Psychology, which educated secondary school students (N = 90) in a variety of Positive Psychology concepts. Phase 2 involved delivering the PPI to secondary school students (N = 1,054). This PPI, the Hummingbird Project, led to improvements in student well-being, as measured by the World Health Organization Well-Being Index (WHO-5). The intervention also led to improvements in student resilience, as measured by the Bolton Uni-Stride Scale (BUSS), and hope, as measured by the Children’s Hope Scale (CHS). Results are discussed in the context of their implications for the future of psychological intervention in secondary school settings.
Highlights
Children spend significantly more time in school compared to any other formal institution during their lives (Rutter et al, 1979), though school hours have changed very little in the last 40 years (Symonds and Hagell, 2011)
There was a significant multivariate main effect for hope (CHS), F(1, 643) = 38.50, p < 0.01. These results show that the well-being, resilience, and hope, of students selected based on perceived need were all improved significantly more by the Hummingbird Project than those of the students who took part in the project in groups that they would ordinarily be in during a normal school day
The current study shows that selected students benefit the most from a universal Positive Psychology Interventions (PPIs)
Summary
Children spend significantly more time in school compared to any other formal institution during their lives (Rutter et al, 1979), though school hours have changed very little in the last 40 years (Symonds and Hagell, 2011). Schools play a major role in children’s development, including relationships, cognitive development, social skills, academic attainment, emotional, and behavioral control (Fazel et al, 2014). As such schools have increasingly been the prime target of interventions designed to improve young peoples’ mental health (Wyn et al, 2000). It was argued by Campion et al (2012) that mental health and mental disorder are distinct. The following factors are associated with positive mental health; improved educational attainment, greater productivity, reduced mortality, increased social interaction and
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