CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 577School Health and Nursing EducationChild and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional DevelopmentMental Health Treatment and Access

A systematic review of the effectiveness of mental health promotion interventions for young people in low and middle income countries

Open access
Barry, Margaret M, Clarke, Aleisha M, Jenkins, Rachel, Patel, Vikram·2013·BMC Public Health
DOI 10.1186/1471-2458-13-835PMC PMC3848687
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

BACKGROUND: This systematic review provides a narrative synthesis of the evidence on the effectiveness of mental health promotion interventions for young people in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). Commissioned by the WHO, a review of the evidence for mental health promotion interventions across the lifespan from early years to adulthood was conducted. This paper reports on the findings for interventions promoting the positive mental health of young people (aged 6-18 years) in school and community-based settings. METHODS: Searching a range of electronic databases, 22 studies employing RCTs (N = 11) and quasi-experimental designs conducted in LMICs since 2000 were identified. Fourteen studies of school-based interventions implemented in eight LMICs were reviewed; seven of which included interventions for children living in areas of armed conflict and six interventions of multicomponent lifeskills and resilience training. Eight studies evaluating out-of-school community interventions for adolescents were identified in five countries. Using the Effective Public Health Practice Project (EPHPP) criteria, two reviewers independently assessed the quality of the evidence. RESULTS: The findings from the majority of the school-based interventions are strong. Structured universal interventions for children living in conflict areas indicate generally significant positive effects on students' emotional and behavioural wellbeing, including improved self-esteem and coping skills. However, mixed results were also reported, including differential effects for gender and age groups, and two studies reported nonsignficant findings. The majority of the school-based lifeskills and resilience programmes received a moderate quality rating, with findings indicating positive effects on students' self-esteem, motivation and self-efficacy. The quality of evidence from the community-based interventions for adolescents was moderate to strong with promising findings concerning the potential of multicomponent interventions to impact on youth mental health and social wellbeing. CONCLUSIONS: The review findings indicate that interventions promoting the mental health of young people can be implemented effectively in LMIC school and community settings with moderate to strong evidence of their impact on both positive and negative mental health outcomes. There is a paucity of evidence relating to interventions for younger children in LMIC primary schools. Evidence for the scaling up and sustainability of mental health promotion interventions in LMICs needs to be strengthened.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1186/1471-2458-13-835

Cites

87 of 87 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • ECD and parenting interventions can be implemented effectively in LMICs' schools and community settings.

    “Evidence also suggests that ECD and parenting interventions can be implemented effectively in LMICs' schools and community settings; however, evidence for scaling-up and sustainability of mental health promotion interventions in LMICs needs to be strengthened [68].”

    From Interventions for Adolescent Mental Health: An Overview of Systematic Reviews (2016) · cites this paper as [68]

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

1 of the 88 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 3

  1. Wells J Barlow J Stewart-Brown S A systematic review of universal approaches to mental health promotion in schools 2001 Oxford: Health Service Research Unit
  2. World Health Organization Seventh Global Conference on Health Promotion: Promoting Health and Development: closing the Implementation Gap 26th-30th October 2009 Nairobi, Kenya: Accessible at: http://www.who.int/healthpromotion/conferences/7gchp/en/index.html 21695816
  3. Adi Y Systematic review of the effectiveness of interventions to promote mental wellbeing in primary schools Report 1: Universal approaches which do not focus on violence or bullying 2007 London: National Institute of Clinical Excellence

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Barry, M. M., Clarke, A. M., Jenkins, R., & Patel, V.
Affiliations
  • Ollscoil na Gaillimhe – University of Galway (IE)
  • King's College London (GB)
  • London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (GB)
Corresponding author
Barry, Margaret M
ORCID
Venue
BMC Public Health
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2013-09-11
Volume
13
Issue
1
Pages
835-835
ISSN
1471-2458 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1186/1471-2458-13-835
PMC
PMC3848687
OpenAlex
W2105332173
Cited by
569
References
88
Citations by year
2026: 53 · 2025: 45 · 2024: 59 · 2023: 69 · 2022: 66 · 2021: 56 · 2020: 32 · 2019: 45 · 2018: 41 · 2017: 30 · 2016: 30 · 2015: 23 · 2014: 18 · 2013: 1
FWCI
4.29
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • BMC Public Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Arrow@dit (Dublin Institute of Technology) (acceptedVersion)
  • ARAN (University of Galway Research Repository) (Ollscoil na Gaillimhe – University of Galway) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • LSHTM Research Online (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) (acceptedVersion)
  • Arrow@dit (Dublin Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion)
  • ARAN (University of Galway Research Repository) (Ollscoil na Gaillimhe – University of Galway) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • Lenus, The Irish Health Repository (Dr Steevens Hospital Library) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
  • Wellcome Trust (100714, 091834)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › Speech and Hearing › School Health and Nursing Education
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
Keywords
mental health promotion, youth, school-based intervention, community-based intervention, low- and middle-income countries, children in armed conflict, resilience training, self-esteem, adolescents, multicomponent intervention, scaling up interventions
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Mental Disorders, Child, Child Welfare, Female, Health Promotion, Humans, Income, Male, Poverty, Psychological Tests, School Health Services, Severity of Illness Index, Socioeconomic Factors, Program Evaluation, Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic, Early Intervention, Educational, Risk Assessment

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review