Exploring mechanisms and contexts in a Peer Education Project to improve mental health literacy in schools in England: a qualitative realist evaluation.

ABSTRACT: Poor adolescent mental health calls for universal prevention. The Mental Health Foundation's 'Peer Education Project' equips older students ('peer educators') to teach younger students ('peer learners') about mental health. The peer-led lessons cover defining good and bad mental health, risk and protective factors, self-care, help-seeking and looking after one another. While previous pre-post evaluations have suggested effectiveness, the mechanisms through which the intervention improves mental health literacy remain unclear. We purposively recruited seven secondary schools across England from 2020 to 2022 and collected data through five observations, 12 staff interviews and 15 student focus groups (totalling 134 students; 46 peer educators aged 14-18 years and 88 peer learners aged 11-13 

SUBMITTER: Curtin EL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10805377 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature