Promising Preventions for Addressing Youth Mental Health: A Scoping Review

Adolescence is a unique period of physical, social, and emotional development. Yet, this development can be hampered by structural inequalities, adverse childhood experiences, and difficulties experienced in environmental contexts. These conditions may exasperate mental health issues and negatively impact adolescent well-being. The purpose of this scoping review was to examine the empirical literature on promising prevention approaches targeting youth mental health and to consider their application in both Canada and China. The scoping review was conducted using Arksey and O’Malley’s (2005) framework and PRISMA-ScR reporting guidelines (Peters et al., 2020; Tricco et al., 2018). Terms related to each concept (e.g., adolescent/youth, prevention, mental health/wellbeing) were used to search the titles, abstracts, and keywords in eleven electronic databases, and studies published from 2010-2022 were included. The location, study objectives, methodology, sample, prevention program/approach, and findings were extracted and reviewed via content analysis. A total of 54 studies were deemed eligible and included for analysis. Most of the studies were from the USA (n=19), followed by Canada (n=6), Australia (n=5) and China (n=3)/Hong Kong, China (n=2). Twenty-two studies evaluated a specific prevention program, with half of them (n=11) implemented in school-based settings. Among all studies, some prevention initiatives and approaches included peer mentoring, sports/recreational activities, healthy eating programs, mindfulness-based stress reduction programs, academic supports, psycho-education workshops, mental health screening, and a crisis support text line. The authors of all studies reported promise in the prevention programs or initiatives examined. This scoping review is limited in its exclusion of grey literature, which could have eliminated promising prevention efforts that have not been evaluated and/or published in academic journals. Future research efforts could focus on examining a narrower scope and definition of mental health for a more targeted approach.