Abrir espaço à saúde mental

: estudo do impacto da intervenção em alunos do 8º ano de escolaridade

Abstract

One in five young people will experience a mental disorder (Stuart, 2006). Knowing that youth is constituted as a stage in which attitudes are malleable and therefore more easily modifiable, it is important to develop up interventions to promote mental health among adolescents, preferably in the context where they spend most of their days – schools (Corrigan & Watson, 2002; Farrer, Leach, Griffiths, Christensen & Jorm, 2008; Puolakka, Kiikkala, Haapasalo-Pesu & Paavilainen, 2011). This study is part of the project “Abrir Espaço à Saúde Mental – Promoção da saúde mental em adolescentes (12-14): desenvolvimento e avaliação de uma intervenção” and its aim is to assess the impact of a school-based intervention on mental health promotion among eighth-grade students. The study involved 214 students from five schools in the North of Portugal with ages between 12 and 15 years old. In order to check the effectiveness of the intervention, the students were randomized in two groups - experimental group (N=101) and control group (N=113). Data collection was conducted through a questionnaire on Mental Health Literacy - LSMq (Campos, Palha, Dias, Veiga & Duarte, 2012), applied to the participants of both groups one week before and after the implementation of the intervention. The intervention consisted of two sessions with an interval of one week, developed only in the experimental group. The main results show a positive impact of the intervention, particularly the increased knowledge about mental health and self-help strategies, reducing stereotyping and increased scores on first aid skills. Having this results into account, it is even more emphasized the importance of carrying out further studies in Portugal focused on these issues in order to aware not only young people, but also other age groups about the increasingly frequent existence of mental health problems, thereby in order to prevent these problems and looking for help as early as possible.

Date of Award	24 Jul 2014
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Luísa Campos (Supervisor)