ArticleClinical practice and epidemiology in mental health : CP & EMH2015
Enhancing the Emotional and Social Skills of the Youth to Promote their Wellbeing and Positive Development: A Systematic Review of Universal School-based Randomized Controlled Trials.
Article in Clinical practice and epidemiology in mental health : CP & EMH, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 54 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
54 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- A Systematic Review and Evidence Gap Map Evaluation of Rhythmic and/or Complex Movement Interventions and Child Cognitive Outcomes.Clinical child and family psychology review · 2025Pooled it
- Relationship between depression and quality of life among students: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Scientific reports · 2023Pooled it
- Social and emotional learning in primary schools: A review of the current state of evidence.The British journal of educational psychology · 2022Pooled it
- Positive Youth Development in the Context of Climate Change: A Systematic Review.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Pooled it
- Interventions integrating health and academic interventions to prevent substance use and violence: a systematic review and synthesis of process evaluations.Systematic reviews · 2018Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Youth Empowered Self-Care: a direct-to-participant intervention to promote mental well-being.BMC public health · 2026Trial
- Impact of a Secondary School Depression Prevention Curriculum on Adolescent Social-Emotional Skills: Evaluation of the Resilient Families Program.Journal of youth and adolescence · 2019Trial
- A haven of green space: learning from a pilot pre-post evaluation of a school-based social and therapeutic horticulture intervention with children.BMC public health · 2018Trial
- Bridging Culture and Prevention: Facilitators of Success in a Culturally Grounded Drug Prevention Program for Rural Hawaiian Youth.Translational issues in psychological science · 2026Article
- Problematic social media use, mental health, and substance use in Czech adolescents: the comparative role of extracurricular activities - findings from the 2022 HBSC study.Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2026Article
- The unexpected impact of the second year of Explo'Santé, a school-based health education programme on life skills development among 5th grade pupils in France: an interventional cohort study.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Understanding the effect of the caring dimension of PYD on depression: the role of positive and negative affect regulation strategies in Spanish emerging adults.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Loneliness and ease of communication with parents and friends: cross-sectional study of adolescents in Denmark.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Identifying students of concern. Primary school teachers' reflections on assessing students' general school functioning based on the concept of typicality.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Strengthening social skills: developing a social competence intervention for physical education using intervention mapping-protocol paper.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Efficacy of non-pharmacological treatments in pediatric MASLD: a review of the literature.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Review
- Investigating the influence of adolescents' social and emotional skills on health behavior: a moderated mediation analysis.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Exploring physical, subjective and psychological wellbeing profile membership in adolescents: a latent profile analysis.BMC psychology · 2024Article
- Possible Mental Health Interventions for Family Members of a Close Relative Who Has Suicidal Thoughts or Committed Suicide: A Pilot Project at a Mental Health Center.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe acquisition of social and emotional skills is associated with positive youth development, character education, healthy lifestyle behaviours, reduction in depression and anxiety, conduct disorders, violence, bullying, conflict, and anger. School-based interventions aimed to enhance these skills go beyond a problem-focused approach to embrace a more positive view of health; they could also improve the youth's wellbeing.
aimTo describe the main features and to establish the effectiveness of universal school-based RCTs for children and the youth, aimed to promote their psychosocial wellbeing, positive development, healthy lifestyle behaviours and/or academic performance by improving their emotional and social skills.
methodsSystematic review by searching for relevant papers in PubMed/Medline with the following key words: "mental health" OR "wellbeing" OR "health promotion" OR "emotional learning" OR "social learning" OR "emotional and social learning" OR "positive youth development" OR "life skills" OR "life skills training" AND "school". Interval was set from January 2000 to April 2014.
results1,984 papers were identified through the search. Out of them 22 RCTs were included. While most interventions were characterized by a whole-school approach and SAFE practices, few studies only used standardized measures to assess outcomes, or had collected follow-up data after ≥ 6 months. The results of all these trials were examined and discussed.
conclusionUniversal school-based RCTs to enhance emotional and social skills showed controversial findings, due to some methodological issues mainly. Nevertheless they show promising outcomes that are relatively far-reaching for children and youth wellbeing and therefore are important in the real world.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.