What does research tell us about school transition interventions? Jenna Jacob reflects on recent publications
Researchers from Cardiff University have conducted a recent systematic review of interventions focused on supporting mental health and wellbeing across three main types of educational transition: preschool to primary; school to school (e.g., primary to middle; middle to secondary etc., depending on country); and secondary school to higher education.
In the paper published here, the authors found 23 interventions, primarily in the US, South America, Europe and Australia. Surprisingly enough, no UK interventions were featured in the review. That might be due to the inclusion criteria, that meant the researchers only included universal interventions and not targeted interventions, i.e., for specific mental health and wellbeing difficulties. A gap in the literature therefore is the exploration of targeted support for children young people who are finding any education transition challenging.
The authors found evidence to suggest that universal interventions are most beneficial for social outcomes, and emotional, mental health and behavioural outcomes were reported to be mixed. The transition to primary school was considered most effective when parents and carers and teachers were involved in the intervention.
This is relevant because educational transition points are likely to be significant events in children and young people’s lives, that can impact their academic and health trajectories. Therefore, they might benefit from a universal intervention, or a targeted intervention if required. This review fits with our work on the evaluation of the ‘parent coaching for pupil progress’ programme, which is being piloted in some education settings in the UK, as a collaboration between mainstream schools and alternative provisions. Parents are involved in this intervention, which seeks to support pupils at risk of not continuing education.
It also aligns with the recent research our colleagues at Anna Freud have also recently published, such as this RCT that is exploring the implementation of a school based an open-access psychological workshop programme (DISCOVER) for 16–18-year-olds. In initial findings, the researchers have reported elsewhere (not open access) the cost effectiveness of the intervention, and found that of the pupils identified as having elevated symptoms of depression at baseline, moderate meaningful improvements were reported.
Such support in school, whether universal or targeted is particularly important for the positive outcomes for all pupils. In this research, also recently conducted by our Anna Freud colleagues, women and girls, non-binary and questioning children and young people, were found to have higher levels of mental health difficulties compared to young men and boys. Additionally, children and young people with economic disadvantage, special education needs, and for whom there were welfare concerns, were found to be more likely to experience higher levels of mental health difficulties. While some of the universal interventions in the research conducted by researchers from Cardiff University were targeted towards children and young people from a low socioeconomic status, mixed findings were reported, which suggests further research is needed.
References
Donaldson, C., Moore, G., & Hawkins, J. (2023). A systematic review of school transition interventions to improve mental health and wellbeing outcomes in children and young people. School Mental Health, 15(1), 19-35. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-022-09539-w
James, K., Lisk, S., Payne-Cook, C., Farishta, Z., Farrelly, M., Sheikh, A., ... & Brown, J. S. (2024). Brief Educational Workshops in Secondary Schools Trial (BESST trial), a school-based cluster randomised controlled trial of the DISCOVER workshop for 16–18-year-olds: recruitment and baseline characteristics. Trials, 25(1), 302. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-024-08116-7
Lereya, S. T., Norton, S., Crease, M., Deighton, J., Labno, A., Ravaccia, G. G., ... & Edbrooke-Childs, J. (2024). Gender, marginalised groups, and young people’s mental health: a longitudinal analysis of trajectories. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, 18(1), 29. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13034-024-00720-4
Lisk, S., James, K., Shearer, J., Byford, S., Stallard, P., Deighton, J., ... & Brown, J. (2024). Brief Educational Workshops in Secondary Schools Trial (BESST): a cluster randomised controlled trial. Secondary analysis in those with elevated symptoms of depression. BMJ Ment Health, 27(1). https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjment-2024-301192