Universal Preventive Resilience Intervention Globally implemented in schools to improve and promote mental Health for Teenagers

Schools provide a unique location to implement universal programs for promoting mental health and well-being. Universal Preventive Resilience Intervention Globally Implemented In Schools To Improve And Promote Mental Health For Teenagers (UPRIGHT) project aims to deploy and evaluate a holistic inclusive intervention for a whole school environment.

UPRIGHT general objective is to promote mental wellbeing and prevent mental disorders by enhancing resilience capacities in youths, through a holistic approach addressing early adolescents, families and education professionals.

UPRIGHT conceptual framework is structured in four different domains (effective coping skills, self-efficacy; social emotional learning; mindfulness; positive parenting skills). Three of the domains target youths and teachers, whereas the last one is for families.

The project consists of 4 main building blocks: 1) co-creation (co-design, co-production and co-customization) of the intervention in EU regions; 2) deployment of resilience interventions; 3) process and outcome evaluation; 4) transfer learning on implementation of positive culture of mental well-being to future regional, national and pan European programs. The UPRIGHT program will be implemented in 5 pilot sites across Europe representing different regions and income countries: Poland (Lower Silesia), Spain (Basque Country), Italy (Trento), Denmark (Denmark) and Iceland (Reykjavik capitol area). Schools of the pilot regions already have committed their participation (Letter of intent included in part 4-5 of the proposal).

Overview of results: More than 4100 adolescents, 2700 families and 550 teachers participated in the evaluation in 5 European countries (Spain, Italy, Poland, Denmark and Iceland). Both groups of adolescents, the intervention and control, showed a deterioration in their mental well-being over time. From one side, it is common for the mental well-being of adolescents between the ages of 12-14 to deteriorate. From the other side, COVID-19 erupted in March 2020, which impacted on the level of perceived stress and increased the complexity of adapting positively to a changing and uncertain context. However, adolescents who received the UPRIGHT intervention reversed this negative trend of deterioration and slowly approached the well-being levels they had at the beginning, before the pandemic. This represents the effect of resilience on them. The qualitative analysis showed that all stakeholders presented a high level of satisfaction, with skills related to emotional management, self-awareness and social awareness standing out. UPRIGHT promoted more positive social relationships, both at family and school level.