Can gamified cCBT prevent depression in secondary school students?

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Lisa Burscheidt summarises a school-based RCT of an online gamified cCBT intervention (SPARX-R) for preventing depression in final year secondary school students in Australia.

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Mindfulness in schools: what next?

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Jennifer Hanratty summarises the recent Campbell review on mindfulness-based interventions for improving cognition, academic achievement, behaviour and socioemotional functioning in schools. She considers what school leaders, researchers and policy makers should do next, considering the current uncertainty around mindfulness in schools.

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Mindfulness for young people: to meta-analyse or not to meta-analyse?

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Sarah McDonald and André Tomlin consider another meta-analysis of mindfulness in young people, which finds “small effect sizes on a range of outcomes”. They conclude that we badly need more RCTs that reliably evaluate the effectiveness, safety and cost effectiveness of mindfulness in young people.

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Focus on the person, not the problem #CORCforum

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André Tomlin considers a new article about high integrity mental health services for children, which calls for mental health and wellbeing support to draw on self, families, school and community resources.

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Use of mental health services may reduce adolescent depression

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Jess Bone publishes her debut blog on a recent longitudinal cohort study, which looks at the reduction in adolescent depression after contact with mental health services.

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safeTALK for youth suicide prevention: new review finds no evidence of safety or efficacy

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Olivia Kirtley and Alys Cole-King appraise a new systematic review of the safeTALK school and community based youth suicide prevention intervention, which finds no evidence of safety or efficacy for this well established programme.

The blog also features a podcast featuring Olivia and Alys, along with Professor Stanley Kutcher, the lead author of this new review.

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Eating disorders more common in schools with more girls or more educated parents

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Lucas Shelemy writes his debut Mental Elf blog about a paper by fellow Elf Helen Bould, which examines whether female student populations and higher levels of parental education are associated with changes in eating disorders prevalence.

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Mental health literacy: can it be taught to teenagers?

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Jasmin Wertz reports on a recent Canadian cluster RCT, which studies the impact of a mental health curriculum for high school students on knowledge and stigma.

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