Big Talks for Little People: Child Mental Health Module: Mental Wealth for Children: Final Report

In this report the focus is on the development and evaluation of the first module
‘Big Talks for Little People: Child Mental Health Module’. Findings from the data analysis would suggest that the six lesson content addressing a range of SEL skills achieved its aim of providing students with new skills and understanding relating to their emotional development and ability to regulate their behaviour and reduce their anxiety. It is noteworthy that for this matched sample the level of self-reported serious school bullying ( ie: once/week or more often) was reduced by 25%. The qualitative data derived from the teacher interviews and student focus group provided significant insight into the positive value of the program for teachers and students which complimented and supported the quantitative data analysis indicating that the program was effective in improving student mental health and well-being. The qualitative data also provided some important insight into improvements that could be made to the module. Limitations of this pilot study include the small number of pilot schools and the selection by the schools of the year levels participating which limit the generalisability of the findings. The nested nature of the data needs to be noted along with the lack of a control group. These limitations should be addressed in a larger roll-out of the study including a broader sample of schools and students and the inclusion of a control group or wait listed group of schools. Ideally there would be some randomisation of students who complete the program in each of the classes. That said, there are practical and ethical reasons why some of these research design elements cannot be included in an educational context including ethical considerations.