The impact of school-based creative bibliotherapy interventions on child and adolescent mental health: a systematic review and realist synthesis protocol
Open accessAbstract
Background: There is a need to identify evidence-based interventions to be delivered in schools that can be used to improve child and adolescent mental health and wellbeing. Creative bibliotherapy is one proposed intervention. However, there has been, to date, no comprehensive assessment of the evidence for its impact on mental health and wellbeing. To fill this gap, we will conduct a systematic review and realist synthesis. Methods: A systematic search of the bibliographic databases APA PsycINFO, Medline (via Ovid), CINAHL, ERIC, Education Research Complete (via EBSCOhost) and Web of Science (SCI, SSCI, AHCI, ESCI) for school-based creative bibliotherapy interventions on child and adolescent mental health. Types of study to be included: cohort studies, non-randomised comparative evaluations, randomised controlled trials. The data from all included studies will be summarised descriptively and strength of evidence appraised. This is a potentially large field of practice, with heterogeneous interventions; we will use methods from intervention components analysis to describe and categorise the range of components and approaches used in included interventions. To understand how interventions work and in which contexts, we will use methods from realist synthesis to develop an exploratory account of mechanisms in different settings and for different young people (contexts). Discussion: Findings will assess the range of evidence for the impact of creative bibliotherapy on child and adolescent mental health and wellbeing, the strength of evidence for the impact identified, and describe potential mechanisms. This review will be useful for a wide range of stakeholders considering implementing or developing interventions using creative bibliotherapy in school-based settings. Systematic review registration: This protocol was registered at the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews ( https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/ ), registration number CRD42023410333. This review is funded by Wellcome Trust (221457/Z/20/Z).
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Evidence suggests that group-based bibliotherapy may have superior long-term preventive effects on depression incidence compared to group CBT and psychoeducational pamphlet controls in adolescent populations.
“Although RCTs specifically evaluating this format remain limited, evidence suggests that the bibliotherapy group may be demonstrated superior long-term preventive effects on depression incidence compared to both group CBT and psychoeducational pamphlet controls, thereby potentially underscoring the added value of group-based delivery for adolescent populations (24, 56).”
From Recent developments in bibliotherapy for adolescent depression (2025) · cites this paper as [24]
The Background > Creative bibliotherapy section reports a small-to-moderate positive effect on child behaviour in a review of creative-bibliotherapy trials. It does not report adolescent depression incidence or a long-term comparison with group CBT or pamphlet controls. Background > Mechanisms of change also says the extent to which the group setting drives change has not been scrutinized. (LLM, conf=0.82)
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- Authors
- Redman, H., Melendez-Torres, G. J., Bethel, A., & Green, J.
- Affiliations
- University of Exeter (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Redman, Hayley
- Venue
- Systematic Reviews
- Published
- 2024-03-13
- Volume
- 13
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 86-86
- ISSN
- 2046-4053 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC10936023
- OpenAlex
- W4392761729
- Cited by
- 15
- References
- 28
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 3
- FWCI
- 2.22
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Systematic Reviews (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust (221457/Z/20/Z)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Conservation › Art Therapy and Mental Health
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Therapy and Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications
- Keywords
- school-based intervention, child mental health, adolescent mental health, well-being, intervention mechanisms, intervention components, school-based mental health support
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent Health, Systematic Reviews as Topic, Adolescent, Bibliotherapy, Child, Humans, Mental Health, Review Literature as Topic, Schools
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