Impact of peer support on student mental wellbeing: a systematic review
Open accessAbstract
This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Objectives: Many universities use peer support programmes to support students. However, there are currently no guidelines on the most effective way of facilitating emotional wellbeing in students. The aim of this paper is to review the evidence for the effectiveness of peer support to improve mental health wellbeing in university students. Methods: Six electronic databases (Medline, Embase, British Education Index (BEI), Australian Education Index (AEI), PsychINFO and Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts (ASSIA)) were searched in December 2017. Search terms included "peer support", "university students" and "mental wellbeing". Studies that did not include peer support or assess the impact of students' mental health were excluded. Data about design and delivery of the peer support intervention and changes in student mental wellbeing outcomes were extracted. Results: 489 records were identified. Three studies met the inclusion criteria; two cross-sectional surveys and one non-randomised intervention study. One study found social support to be the most important protective factor for mental wellbeing. Two studies showed no statistically significant improvement in wellbeing outcomes with peer support. One study found that majority of mentors and mentees found peer support useful. Conclusions: There is currently no evidence that peer support improves mental wellbeing among university students.
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The effectiveness of peer support in higher education settings is unknown.
“Although peer support is used by many and seems promising, its effectiveness in higher education settings is unknown.21”
From A systematic review of peer support interventions for student mental health and well-being in higher education (2024) · cites this paper as [21]
The Conclusion says the review is inconclusive about whether peer support improves university students’ mental wellbeing, and the Implications for practice and research say it is practiced in most universities. That supports uncertainty about its mental-wellbeing effects, but the citing sentence broadens this to effectiveness in higher education generally. (LLM, conf=0.82)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredPrevious reviews that used only 'peer support' as a search term found just three studies and missed relevant work.
“Previous reviews only using peer support as a search term exhibit this, finding just three studies and missing relevant work.21”
From A systematic review of peer support interventions for student mental health and well-being in higher education (2024) · cites this paper as [21]
The Results report that the review included three studies, and the Discussion (Limitations of the review) says relevant articles may not have been identified. But Methods (Literature search and data sources) lists search terms beyond “peer support,” including “university student” and terms relating to mental wellbeing. The source therefore does not support the claim that it searched using only “peer support” or that it definitively missed relevant work. (LLM, conf=0.90)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredA previous systematic review included only three studies and missed relevant research on other forms of peer support.
“Limited search terms in a previous systematic review,21 which included only three studies, missed relevant research on other forms of peer support.”
From A systematic review of peer support interventions for student mental health and well-being in higher education (2024) · cites this paper as [21]
The Results and Discussion (Limitations of the review; page unavailable) say that only three studies were included and that relevant articles may have been missed. The paper does not establish that limited search terms caused it to miss research on other forms of peer support. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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- Authors
- John, N. M., Page, O., Martin, S. C., & Whittaker, P.
- Affiliations
- University of Manchester (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Whittaker, Paula
- ORCID
- Whittaker, Paula
- Venue
- MedEdPublish
- Publisher
- F1000 Research Ltd
- Published
- 2018-08-14
- Volume
- 7
- Pages
- 170
- ISSN
- 2312-7996 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC10701817
- OpenAlex
- W2887568936
- Cited by
- 40
- References
- 14
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 0.27
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- MedEdPublish (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Research Explorer (The University of Manchester) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Student Stress and Coping
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mentoring and Academic Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Keywords
- peer support, student psychological well-being, university students, peer mentoring, social support, student mental health, intervention effectiveness
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