PurposeThe prevalence of mental disorders amongst children and adolescents is an increasing global problem. Schools have been positioned at the forefront of promoting positive mental health and well-being through implementing evidence-based interventions. The aim of this paper is to review current evidence-based research of mental health promotion interventions in schools and examine the reported effectiveness to identify those interventions that can support current policy and ensure that limited resources are appropriately used.MethodsThe authors reviewed the current state of knowledge on school mental health promotion interventions globally. Two major databases, SCOPUS and ERIC were utilised to capture the social science, health, arts and humanities, and education literature.ResultsInitial searches identified 25 articles reporting on mental health promotion interventions in schools. When mapped against the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 10 studies were included and explored. Three of these were qualitative and seven were quantitative.ConclusionsA range of interventions have been tested for mental health promotion in schools in the last decade with variable degrees of success. Our review demonstrates that there is still a need for a stronger and broader evidence base in the field of mental health promotion, which should focus on both universal work and targeted approaches to fully address mental health in our young populations.

Purpose – Mental health of children and young people is often discussed in terms of mental illness, however, such an approach is limited. The purpose of this paper is to explore young people's views of what mental health is and how to stay mentally healthy. Design/methodology/approach – The paper investigated young people's views on these two issues through a series of workshops. In total 218, 13-year-old schoolchildren produced posters with their impressions of the issues. Themes that young people identified were then discussed with them in terms of the existing Bright Futures definition of mental health. Poster responses were subsequently transcribed and thematically analysed. Findings – The paper identified a number of themes for each question. Mental health was viewed in terms of personal attributes of an individual, illness, ability for personal management and establishing social relations. Young people saw mental health maintained through a combination of lifestyle choices, personal attributes, management of self and environment, social support and relationships, as well as treatment of illness. These themes corresponded to the ones identified by the Bright Futures. Research limitations/implications – This study highlights the complexity of young people's views on the meaning of mental health. They were also more positive, open and competent in discussing mental health than previously suggested. However, a more systematic investigation of views and attitudes is necessary, including younger children. Additionally, health care professionals are likely to benefit from young people's engagement in planning and implementing strategies for better mental health. Originality/value – This paper is one of the few to investigate the positive meaning of mental health with young people.

The present study sought to determine whether children discriminate between different group types with respect to perceived entitativity, and if so, whether the group properties that determine their perceptions of entitativity differ from those of adults. Ten-year-old children and adults were required to rate 12 social groups on a number of properties, including entitativity. In a further task, participants also sorted 30 social groups into discrete group types. Two major findings emerged. First, over the two tasks both children and adults were found to classify groups in terms of at least four main group types: Intimacy groups, task groups, social categories and loose associations. Second, children and adults appeared to have different perceptions concerning which group properties determine the degree of entitativity of the different group types. In particular, children put much more emphasis on the level of interaction among group members whereas adults emphasized the importance of the group among its members.A social group is, by definition, a collection of individuals. However, the extent to which a collection of individuals is actually perceived as a group, as a single and unified entity, may vary. For instance, 11 individuals wearing the same outfit and running in unison after a ball are considered as a group (a football team). On the other hand, 11 individuals queuing at a bus stop would not normally be seen as forming a group. The degree to which a collection of individuals is seen to form a cohesive entity is defined as perceived entitativity (Campbell, 1958).The perceived entitativity of a social group has important consequences for issues such as social attribution, stereotyping, and group impression. For example, Yzerbyt, Rogier and Fiske (1998) showed that group entitativity may stand as a meaningful causal factor in the context of social judgements and allow perceivers to account for the behaviour of group members. They demonstrated that perceivers tend to judge the behaviour of members of highly entitative groups based on group characteristics and tend to disregard the role of situational factors. Crawford, Sherman, and Hamilton (2002) also found that stereotypical features of a more entitative group would transfer across all its members more easily than it would happen in a less entitative group. Furthermore, Abelson, Dasgupta, Park, and Banaji (1998) showed that information formation processes associated with entitative targets were influenced to a greater degree by the negative rather than positive information.Perceived group entitativity plays an important role in intergroup contexts too. For instance, Dasgupta, Banaji, and Abelson (1999, Experiment 2) found that members of entitative out-groups appear not only as psychologically and physically more homogeneous than entitative in-groups, but that their members are more capable of threatening and harmful behaviours towards outsiders. Other evidence suggests that out-groups are distrusted and competed against exactly because of their higher degre...

In this editorial we argue for the need for better research evidence on the prevalence of child mental health problems in minority ethnic groups, service utilisation among these groups and whether some service barriers are specific for certain groups. Without such evidence it is not possible to influence policy and practice so that evidence-based and appropriate services can be designed and offered to these populations. The terms ethnicity, race and migration are often imprecisely defined, and mental health needs and outcomes vary between immigrants from different generations. There is also a complex interplay between minority status and social class, with terms such as ethnicity being a proxy for multifaceted sociocultural and economic variables. However, we need to start collecting better data on children from minority ethnic groups so that these relationships can be understood, services tailored on the available evidence and ultimately better care delivered to this group of children.

Rather than a blanket approach being applied to policy and service planning to meet the needs of diverse communities of young people, more specific evidence needs to be gained about patterns of referrals of minority groups and their strategy of accessing supportive adults.