Results support the use of KIDS as a tool to measure children's insight into dementia, and to evaluate dementia education initiatives targeting the youth.

Children are our future citizens. Developing an education program for children with this message content may be fundamental to de-stigmatizing dementia and laying the foundation to dementia-friendly communities.

Improving children’s understanding of people with dementia is essential for tackling societal stigma around dementia. Kids4Dementia is a teacher-led multimedia dementia education resource for 9–12 year olds (approximately 150 minutes duration). A non-randomised, waitlist-controlled, mixed-methods design examined whether Kids4Dementia was (1) efficacious in improving students” attitudes towards people with dementia and (2) engaging and acceptable for teachers and students. Students who completed Kids4Dementia (n = 136) showed improved scores on the Kids Insight into Dementia Survey, relative to the control school (n = 67), especially students who had not heard of dementia before (Time × Group × Dementia Familiarity interaction, F(1, 191) = 5.28, p = .023, partial η2 = .027). Qualitative reports indicated that the program was acceptable and engaging for teachers and students and corroborated improvement in student empathy and behavioural intentions towards people with dementia. The findings provide preliminary evidence for the efficacy of Kids4Dementia as an engaging, stakeholder-directed, curriculum-aligned dementia education program.

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