Background: Mental health during a person’s adolescence plays a key role in setting the stage for their mental health over the rest of their life. Hence, initiatives that promote adolescents’ wellbeing are an important public health goal. Helping others can take a variety of forms, and the literature suggests that helping others can positively impact a person’s wellbeing. However, there is a lack of data that synthesizes the impact of helping others on adolescents’ wellbeing. Therefore, this review aims to synthesize the available evidence related to helping others and to youth wellbeing. Methods: A scoping review search was undertaken with no date restrictions. CINAHL, Medline and PyschINFO, were searched for studies that analyzed the relationship between helping others and youth mental health. Results: Data from 213 papers were included in the scoping review. Three main themes were observed: (1) the relationship between helping others and mental health outcomes among youths (positive and negative); (2) factors associated with youth engagement in prosocial behavior (facilitators and barriers); (3) the impact of interventions related to helping others, and to youth mental health (positive and negative). Conclusions: An overwhelmingly positive relationship exists between youth prosocial behavior and its influence on youth mental health.
Jarbin et al.'s (2021) study highlight the potential benefits of a group exercise program for young patients with persistent major depression. When evaluating the exercise program's impact on depressive symptoms in the long-term, there was a statistically significant (p < .001) reduction in scores of both the Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology (QIDS-A) clinicianadministered and self-reported versions. Further, when comparing baseline to one-year followup, the metric used to measure wellbeing found a statistically significant (p = .011) improvement in participants' wellbeing. However, the authors share an important consideration involving the challenges associated with transitioning from group-based exercise programs to independently directed exercise. This challenge can limit participation in exercise, thus hindering the benefits of exercise. One of the potential reasons for this observed challenge could be due to environmental barriers associated with exercise, including the distance to gyms and gym costs (Glowacki et al., 2017;Monteiro et al., 2020). These environmental barriers can make it quite challenging for young people with persistent depression to exercise independently.Distance to the gym was a barrier noted by Monteiro et al. (2020), in this study 53.2% of participants either agreed or strongly agreed that distance to the gym was a barrier to exercise. Other studies in the literature have found that the distance to physical activity resources, such as gyms, are negatively correlated with physical activity (Jilcott et al., 2007). Further, given the age of adolescents, they may not have access to a driver's license or vehicle for transportation to physical activity spaces that are not accessible by public transportation. One way to mitigate the barrier of gym distance is to provide patients transitioning from group-based to individual exercise programs with home gym equipment and virtual instruction resources. This intervention is even more appealing given our current context living amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, where access to many physical activity resources have been limited. By engaging in physical activity at home with sufficient equipment, the issue of distance to physical activity resources is greatly reduced. Further,
It is clear that exercise can be a source of great support for patients with major depressive disorder. However, it is important to recognize that several multifactorial and intersecting challenges are associated with exercise for this patient population. Group fitness programs for this patient population have the potential to be cost-effective while serving as an avenue of social interaction for participants. From an administrative perspective, it is challenging to balance satisfaction and adherence in group fitness programs targeting patients with major depressive disorder. This article presents a proposal that highlights what the challenges may look like in practice and discusses 3 strategies for improving satisfaction and adherence with a group fitness program: diagnosis and needs assessment, exercise diversity, and ongoing evaluation.
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