The Impact of Transitions, a Mental Health Literacy Intervention With Embedded Life Skills for Postsecondary Students: Preliminary Findings From a Naturalistic Cohort Study

Abstract

Objective Mental illness is a common medical condition to onset during adolescence. Young people who leave for postsecondary life are at an especially challenging period of lifetime when many will leave home and familiar environments for prolonged periods of time. These new circumstances may put young people at risk of developing mental health problems or disorders or exacerbate existing mental disorders. Alternatively, some young people may misinterpret the normal negative emotional states occurring as a result of these new challenges as a mental disorder requiring professional intervention. We conducted a quasiexperimental cohort study to investigate the effectiveness of a mental health literacy intervention Transitions with blended life skills to address these challenges for first-year postsecondary students. Methods Students ( n = 2,397) from five Canadian postsecondary institutions were assigned to the intervention or the control group and were administered a survey at baseline, postintervention, and at 2-month follow-up (September 2017 to February 2018). We applied generalized linear mixed effects (PROC Mixed procedure) to test the between-group difference in the post—pre/follow-up—pre and to determine the predicted least-square mean values. Results The findings showed that students who were exposed to the Transitions intervention significantly improved their mental health knowledge, decreased stigma against mental illness, improved help-seeking attitudes and behaviours, and decreased perceived stress when compared to students who had not been exposed to the intervention. However, we did not identify significant changes in general health. This may be due to the relatively short follow-up time (2 months) to determine participants’ general health status. Conclusions Transitions delivered to first-year postsecondary students may be a beneficial intervention to help young people adjust to their new postsecondary life and improve their mental health.

Evaluation of Know Before You Go on mental health literacy and life skills to prepare for life after high school.

“…These findings resonated with our research on a similar resource Transitions , designed for first-year postsecondary students. This research indicated students’ knowledge about postsecondary life improved and they would like to talk to others (e.g., friends, roommates, classmates, and parents) as a result of reading Transitions (Hunt et al, 2019; Kutcher et al, 2015a; Potvin-Boucher et al, 2010; Wei et al, 2022). This indicated that the MHL approach with embedded life skills may have the potential to support successful student transitions to postsecondary life as it includes comprehensive and rich information relevant to youth new life experiences.…”

“…Research demonstrated strong evidence to support that this resource improved youth understanding about mental health and reduced stigma against mental illness (Hunt et al, 2019; Kutcher et al, 2015a; Potvin-Boucher et al, 2010). Additionally, Transitions has been shown to benefit students by providing them with additional life skills strategies (e.g., budgeting, building relationships, developing identify, and maximizing learning) through independent reading, group discussions, and sessions led by trained peers, which helped to reduce perceived stress and therefore enhanced their resiliency (Wei et al, 2022). Transitions is the first of its kind to blend mental health with life skills that is supported by solid evidence in improving youth mental health in the postsecondary setting.…”

Evaluating the effectiveness of a school-based mental health literacy intervention from a comprehensive demographic and social-cognitive perspective

“…Mental health knowledge was measured with a 30-item questionnaire based on the content of the Guide resource and required participants to choose from one of three options: ‘true,’ false’ or ‘do not know.’ Each correct answer received one point for a total possible score of 30. It is a well validated instrument addressing 5 topics; brain functions, basic facts about mental health and mental illness, information about specific mental disorders, consequences of untreated mental illness, and mental-illness treatments 30 .…”

Parsley Health: Feasibility and acceptability of a large-scale holistic telehealth program for chronic disease care

“…Participants were then placed into one of four group's based on their baseline PSI score: “well”, “symptomatic”, “very symptomatic”, or “sick” (article citation). PSI group (well, symptomatic, very symptomatic, or sick), time point (baseline, follow-up 1, follow-up 2, and follow-up 3), and the interaction between PSI group and time were included as fixed effects, and participants as a random effect ( 48 ).…”