Brief School-Based Interventions Targeting Student Mental Health or Wellbeing: A Systematic Review

Brief, school-based mental health interventions hold promise for reducing barriers to mental health support access, a critical endeavor in light of increasing rates of mental health concerns among youth. However, there is no consensus on whether or not brief school-based interventions are effective at reducing mental health concerns or improving wellbeing. This systematic review and meta-analysis aims to provide consensus and determine directions for future work. Articles were included if they examined a brief (≤ four sessions or 240 minutes of intervention time) psychosocial intervention, were conducted within a Pre-K through 12th-grade school setting, included at least one treatment outcome evaluating mental health or wellbeing, and were published since 2000. A total of 6,702 papers were identified through database searching, of which 81 papers (k studies = 75) were ultimately selected for inclusion. A total of 40,498 students were included across studies and a total of 75 unique interventions were examined. A total of 324 effect sizes were extracted. On average, interventions led to statistically significant improvements in mental health/wellbeing outcomes versus control conditions up to one month (g = .18, p = .004), six months (g = .15, p = .006), and one year (g = .10, p = .03) post-intervention. There may be benefits to brief school-based interventions from a preventative public-health standpoint; future research may focus on how to optimize their real-world utility. Prospero preregistration: CRD42021255079.