Summary

In this episode Dr. Carolina Guzman Holst is a NIHR Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, discusses her recent paper titled Scoping review: potential harm from school-based group mental health interventions.

Where the authors ‘examine three areas: the types of potential harms and adverse events reported in school-based mental health interventions; the subgroups of children and adolescents at heightened risk; and the proposed explanations for these potential harms.’The conversation explores the rising mental health issues among young people in schools, focusing on universal interventions like mindfulness and CBT. Carolina Guzman discusses her scoping review on the potential negative effects of these interventions, emphasising the importance of understanding their impact on vulnerable groups. The discussion highlights the need for careful implementation and monitoring of mental health programs in educational settings, advocating a tailored approach rather than a one-size-fits-all solution.

Links:

Guzman-Holst C, Streckfuss Davis R, Andrews JL, Foulkes L. Scoping review: potential harm from school-based group mental health interventions. Child Adolesc Ment Health. 2025 Mar 18. doi: 10.1111/camh.12760. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40101758: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40101758/

Learn more about the Myriad Trial on a universal mindfulness intervention on the Mindfulness Mini Series: https://changingstatesofmind.com/mindfulness-miniseries-1

The link to the DfE technical report mentioned is here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/education-for-wellbeing-programme-findings

Key takeaways:

• Mental health issues among young people are rising.

• Universal interventions aim to help all students, regardless of need.

• Mindfulness and CBT are common school interventions.

• Negative effects of interventions can occur, especially in vulnerable groups.

• High quality implementation quality is crucial for intervention success.

• Long-term benefits of interventions are often not well-studied.

• Schools should monitor the effects of mental health programs.

• A hybrid approach may be more effective than universal interventions alone.

• Teachers should consult evidence before implementing programs.

• Tailored support is essential for students with specific needs.

Timestamps

01:45 Introduction to Mental Health in Schools

04:17 Understanding Universal Interventions

07:25 Exploring Mindfulness and CBT Interventions

09:41 Negative Effects of Universal Interventions

16:01 Identifying Vulnerable Groups

19:45 Long-term Effects and Benefits

25:07 Conclusions of the Scoping Review

27:11 Implications for Schools and Teachers

This month Dr Katy Burgess, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Cardiff University, talks about her research into students’ learning - what they do and how effective they think this is - this is useful for us, as teachers, to understand how, what we are teaching them in school about learning and revision, is being interpreted and used by students. We discuss the best ways to revise but perhaps more importantly what we should be telling our students to get them to use more effective strategies. Plus additional thoughts on where we could slip retrieval practice when students don’t even notice (some good advice for parents!), forward testing effect and that we need to remember that learning involves an awful lot of forgetting before students actually remember everything they need to know.

If you'd like to learn more about Dr Katy Burgess or read her publications you can do so here:

https://profiles.cardiff.ac.uk/staff/burgesskv

T-FUN Network - https://t-fun.co.uk/

The NEurodivergent peer Support Toolkit (NEST) is a set of free resources for staff in mainstream secondary schools who wish to facilitate peer support for neurodivergent young people. The toolkit was co-created by researchers at the University of Edinburgh, neurodivergent young people and a neurodiverse group of adults who work with neurodivergent young people. The project was funded by the Salvesen Mindroom Research Centre Scientific Advisory Board.

In this episode Katie Cebula and Catherine Crompton talk about how the NEST came about, what it involves and how it could support pupils in your school.

You can find out more and download the resources here: https://salvesen-research.ed.ac.uk/our-projects/nest-neurodivergent-peer-support-toolkit

This is the 7th podcast from the RE-STAR team and Professor Edmund Sonuga-Barke and Dr Georgia Pavlopoulou share the findings from work package one. This episode explores how the RE-STAR team has collected qualitative data through innovative methods that really allow the voices of young people with ADHD and Autism to be heard. They also share the findings about the upsetting experiences of young people with ADHD and Autism, what these experiences are (and if you are a teacher you might be surprised) and the intensity of those emotional experiences and as well as how these differ for neurotypical, ADHD and Autistic groups. The team is also considering the long term impact of this emotional burden on depression and anxiety.

If you would like to hear more from the RE-STAR team please do take a listen here: https://changingstatesofmind.com/re-star-project

If you would like to read the paper the link is: https://acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jcv2.12287

In this week’s episode Purvi (Vi) Gandhi shares her knowledge about implementing effective and evidence based strategies to improve mental health or mental fitness in schools.

Vi has recently published a book 'A little guide for teachers: Student Mental Health' with lots of ideas of how teachers can support the mental health and fitness of the young people in schools. In this interview we discuss the language we use around mental health, why mental health is so important in school and how we can support our pupils to thrive and much more.

If you would like to find out more about her book here is the link: uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/author/purvi-gandhi

If you want to hear more podcasts on mental health from Psychology in the classroom here is the link: https://changingstatesofmind.com/mental-health-%26-wellbeing

On World Mental Health day 2024 Psychology in the Classroom discusses Mindfulness. We eschew the ‘Crystals and Muesli’ version and reframe it to ask how to be more attentive, calmer, more grounded, more aware, more responsive, less anxious. Willem Kuyken and Maggie Farrar join me to discuss, how we can make moments in our day to be mindful and how this can help us align ourselves better with our personal values.

You can find the podcasts on the Myriad Trial into Mindfulness in schools via this link: https://changingstatesofmind.com/mindfulness-miniseries

This is the link to Willem’s website and book: https://mindfulnessforlife.uk/

This is the link to Maggie’s website and book: https://www.empoweringleadership.co.uk/

In this final summary interview with Prof. Dr. Suzanne Narciss, we review all our learning about failure over the last few months. There is much we can do to encourage our students to learn from errors, including interactive formative assessment and feedback strategies, prompting reflection and adaptive strategies for dealing with errors and using other people’s errors. As teachers we need to help students overcome their fear of failure by creating a positive error climate and supporting students to develop a more positive error mindset. But this is an area that is challenging to research and we still have much to learn.

More than one in 10 children ‘almost always’ or ‘often’ fear failure. But where do they learn this from?

This fear can often pass from parents to children. Parental communication about failures and setbacks plays a critical role in shaping a child's perception of mistakes. In her research Dr Elizabeth Peterson found that:

• Clear action plans without discussion of collaborative resources increased children's fear of making mistakes.

• When mothers acknowledged their child's emotions and discussed collaborative problem-solving, there was a notable decrease in the child's fear of mistakes.

• Many mothers minimally acknowledged or dismissed their child's emotions (40%), rarely discussed action plans (55%), or collaborative resources (79%).

Effective parental communication involving emotional acknowledgment and collaborative problem-solving can help reduce children's fear of making mistakes. In this interview we discuss the consequences of this research for the classroom and how we as teachers can have positive conversations with our students about failure.

You can find Elizabeth’s paper here:

Peterson, E. R., Sharma, T., Bird, A., Henderson, A. M. E., Ramgopal, V., Reese, E., & Morton, S. M. B. (2024). How mothers talk to their children about failure, mistakes and setbacks is related to their children's fear of failure. British Journal of Educational Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep.12685

https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjep.12685