Healthy Minds, Healthy Schools Program travels to Newfoundland and Labrador

CARE Research Group member Micah Tilley is currently conducting research for her doctoral dissertation in St. John’s, Newfoundland. She is investigating the effectiveness of the Healthy Minds, Healthy Schools (HMHS) program, which she developed and published in collaboration with Dr. Montreuil. The goal of this program is to teach children skills associated with social-emotional learning, such emotion regulation, while reducing or preventing symptoms of anxiety and/or depression while also fostering feelings of well-being. For example, children are taught to identify and label emotions, implement adaptive coping strategies, reflect and identify personal strengths and skills, and engage in problem-solving behaviours. The program is based on techniques and tenets of cognitive-behavioral therapy, mindfulness, metacognitive regulation, and positive psychology.

More specifically, Micah is investigating whether the HMHS program yields improvements in children’s cognitive emotion regulation abilities and mental health outcomes, such as symptoms of anxiety and depression, positive and negative affect, and feelings of life satisfaction. Though the original HMHS program consists of 16 lessons, Micah will be investigating the effectiveness of a condensed, 8-lesson version in a sample of elementary students. Her research will also investigate emotion regulation profiles in children and whether these profiles are uniquely associated with various mental health outcomes.

Lesson topics include:

• Introduction to thoughts

• Introduction to feelings

• How the body reacts to thoughts and feelings

• Labelling emotions

• Mindfulness and relaxation (2 lessons)

• Expressing emotions

• Strengths, skills, and gratitude

For this research, Micah is collaborating with 10 schools in the Newfoundland and Labrador English School District within the St. John’s and surrounding area. She has trained school teachers, guidance counselors and principals in program implementation. With the help of undergraduate psychology volunteers at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Micah has completed pre-test data collection. Program implementation is underway, with post-test data collection is set to take place in April. We are very excited to say that approximately 400 students will be receiving the HMHS program through Micah’s research!

Here are a few photos of Micah preparing questionnaires for data collection and student workbooks for each child.