Mental health promotion for the ‘in-betweeners’: The rationale and effectiveness of community-based mentoring and coaching schemes for primary school-aged children.

Abstract

Background: There are relatively few research publications of mental health promotion initiatives for primary school aged children that are based in community rather than educational settings. Aims:To describe developmental frameworks and models of mentoring, coaching and mental health promotion and to summarize any evidence for the efficacy of community initiatives.Methods: An umbrella review was undertaken of publications on theories and models, and a synthesis of findings from reviews of outcomes of mentoring, mental health promotion initiatives undertaken outside of school time for children aged 5-11 years.Results: Developmental mentoring on its own or in combination with outside school activities is potentially more flexible in terms of delivery and targets than school-based programs. Pooled effect sizes (range about 0.2-0.4) suggest modest but significant gains across several key domains (cognition, emotion, physical