In the last decade, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) have observed an unprecedented rise in young children presenting with suicidal ideation, needing urgent assessment and treatment. Once stabilised, CAMHS professionals often refer these children to speech and language therapists (SLTs) for assessment of and support for their…

Parenting practices predict important outcomes for children, and parenting programs are potentially effective means of supporting parents to promote optimal outcomes for children. This review summarizes findings of systematic reviews of parenting programs published in the Campbell Library. Six reviews evaluated the effectiveness of a range of…

School-based mental health prevention programmes can be effective but their adoption within schools will depend on their social acceptability. We report a qualitative evaluation summarising the views of children (115), parents (20) and school staff (47) about a universal school-based anxiety prevention programme FRIENDS. This study was conducted…

This chapter reviews youth mental health interventions that promote behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement among school-aged youth within a three-tier framework. We first summarize empirical relationships between positive indicators of student engagement (e.g., subjective well-being; SWB) and negative indicators (e.g., internalizing and…

Refugees often experience significant psychological distress, but many do not receive necessary services. Among children and youth, most mental health services are provided by schools, so schools are an important service provider for young refugees. We conducted a systemic literature review to synthesize and evaluate the existing research on…

"FRIENDS for life" is a manualised, 10 week, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) based programme designed to be run in school and community settings. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of "FRIENDS for life" when implemented in a mainstream secondary school by school staff. Data regarding implementation of the…

Background: We evaluated the 12-month effects of the COPE (Creating Opportunities for Personal Empowerment) Healthy Lifestyles TEEN (Thinking, Emotions, Exercise, Nutrition) program versus an attention control program (Healthy Teens) on overweight/obesity and depressive symptoms in high school adolescents. Methods: A cluster randomized controlled…

This study is the first social validity evaluation of the Spanish version of the "FRIENDS for Life" program with Mexican children. "FRIENDS for Life" is a cognitive-behavioral intervention aimed at increasing social and emotional competence and decreasing anxiety and depressive symptoms in children. The program is designed to…

Childhood anxiety is a common condition which, if untreated, can cause considerable distress and impairment and increase the likelihood of mental health problems in adulthood. Developing good emotional health in children is therefore an important objective which has been emphasised in recent governmental initiatives and policies. In particular,…

We are delighted to welcome you to the International Psychological Applications Conference and Trends (InPACT) 2017, taking place in Budapest, Hungary, from 29 of April to 1 of May, 2017. Modern psychology offers a large range of scientific fields where it can be applied. The goal of understanding individuals and groups (mental functions and…