Trial reportBMC psychiatry2020
Long-term effects of Youth Mental Health First Aid training: randomized controlled trial with 3-year follow-up.
Trial report in BMC psychiatry, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 5 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
11 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Mental health first aid training and assessment for healthcare professionals and medical nursing students: a systematic review.BMC psychology · 2025Pooled it
- Mental Health First Aid as a tool for improving mental health and well-being.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2023Pooled it
- Investigating the Role of Friendship Interventions on the Mental Health Outcomes of Adolescents: A Scoping Review of Range and a Systematic Review of Effectiveness.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Pooled it
- Mental Health First Aid: A Systematic Review of Trainee Behavior and Recipient Mental Health Outcomes.Psychiatric services (Washington, D.C.) · 2022Pooled it
- Mental Health Literacy Programs for Parents of Adolescents: A Systematic Review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Pooled it
- Feasibility and effect of adding a concurrent parental component to a school-based wellness program using two modes of mobile-based technology - mixed methods evaluation of RCT.BMC public health · 2022Trial
- Association Between Mental Health Literacy and Its Dimensions with Adolescent Depression and Anxiety: A Cross-Sectional Study Among 5759 Adolescents in China.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- A scoping review of Youth Mental Health First Aid for adolescents in school, community, and healthcare settings.PLOS mental health · 2026Article
- A Systematic Review of Parents' Mental Health Literacy Programs: Examining Program Effectiveness and Parent Satisfaction.Child psychiatry and human development · 2025Review
- Digital and Hybrid Pediatric and Youth Mental Health Program Implementation Challenges During the Pandemic: Literature Review With a Knowledge Translation and Theoretical Lens Analysis.JMIR pediatrics and parenting · 2024Review
- Cultural Adaptation of the teen Mental Health First Aid (tMHFA) Program from Australia to the USA.School mental health · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundMental Health First Aid (MHFA) training teaches community members how to provide initial support to someone with a mental health problem. Key gaps in the evidence base supporting the training are the longevity of effects beyond 6 months, effects on mental health first aid behavior, and the impact of support on the recipient of aid. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of the Youth MHFA course 3 years after training.
methods384 Australian parents of an adolescent aged 12-15 were randomized to receive either the 14-h Youth MHFA course or the 15-h Australian Red Cross Provide First Aid course. This paper reports outcomes at baseline and 3 years later. Primary outcomes were cases of adolescent mental health problems, and parental support towards their adolescent if they developed a mental health problem, rated by the parent and adolescent. Secondary outcomes included parent knowledge about youth mental health problems, intentions and confidence in supporting a young person, stigmatizing attitudes, and help-seeking for mental health problems. Data were analyzed with mixed-effects models with group by measurement occasion interactions.
results3-year follow-up data was obtained from 149 parents and 118 adolescents, who were aged 16.5 years on average. Between baseline and 3-year follow-up, there was a non-significant reduction in adolescent cases of mental health problems relative to the control group (odds ratios (OR) 0.16-0.17), a non-significant improvement in parental support reported by adolescents with a mental health problem (OR 2.80-4.31), and a non-significant improvement in the quality of support that parents reported providing to their adolescents with a mental health problem (d = 0.38). Secondary outcomes that showed significant improvements relative to the control group were parental knowledge about youth mental health problems (d = 0.31) and adolescent perceptions of general social support from their parents (d = 0.35).
conclusionsThis paper reports on the longest follow-up of Mental Health First Aid training in a controlled trial. Three years after training, participants had maintained their improved knowledge about mental health problems. There were some indications of other positive effects, but the study was underpowered to clearly show benefits to mental health first aid skills and recipients of aid.
trial registrationACTRN 12612000390886 , registered retrospectively 5/4/2012, https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=347502.
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