ArticleFrontiers in public health2026
The Mental Health Literacy and Prevention Survey (mHELP): a brief measure for assessing gatekeepers' mental health literacy in prevention research.
Article in Frontiers in public health, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Theoretical background: Mental health literacy (MHL) is a key target of prevention efforts to help gatekeepers such as teachers and other professionals recognize and respond to mental health problems in young people. To evaluate such mental health prevention initiatives, instruments that capture the multiple components of MHL in a concise and practical way are crucial. However, existing measures often assess only selected aspects of the construct or have not been comprehensively validated. Building on the established conceptualization of MHL, a brief and multidimensional measure suitable for prevention and implementation research is needed. Methods: The present study reports on the development and validation of the Mental Health Literacy and Prevention Survey (mHELP). Using baseline data from Results: Confirmatory factor analyses provided initial support for the proposed five-factor structure. Reliability was good for the total score as well as for the subscales Knowledge, Self-reported helping behavior, and Emotional understanding, whereas the Stigma and Confidence subscales showed weaker psychometric performance. Test-retest reliability over 6 months was moderate and split-half reliability of the total score was high. Initial evidence of construct validity was provided by expected associations with established measures of mental health knowledge and stigma, while low correlations with symptom measures suggested preliminary evidence of discriminant validity. Discussion: The mHELP represents a brief, multidimensional instrument for assessing MHL among gatekeepers, with the total score currently appearing to be the most robust indicator. At the subscale level, several dimensions showed satisfactory psychometric properties, whereas the Stigma and Confidence subscales require further refinement before separate interpretation can be recommended. By integrating multiple facets of MHL, including emotional understanding as a practice-informed component, the instrument may complement existing approaches while remaining practical for prevention research. Overall, the findings provide initial support for the utility of the mHELP, particularly at the total-score level, although further validation is needed, including refinement of selected subscales, sensitivity to change, and testing in more diverse and international samples.
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.