Abstract

Background: Mental health literacy is a health literacy-derived concept that gained attention especially in the developed countries, while in the developing countries it is still under-researched. The present study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a mental health literacy intervention on improving mental health knowledge, attitudes towards mental health, attitudes towards help-seeking, and decreasing perceived stress in a Romanian adolescent sample and its maintenance effect.

Methods: We recruited 490 adolescents (ninth-graders with a mean age of 15.56, SD = .76) and assigned them to the intervention (N = 367) or the control group (N = 124). For the intervention group, we evaluated participants’ mental health knowledge, attitudes towards mental health, attitudes towards help-seeking and perceived stress at post-intervention, 2- and 12-months follow-up.

Results: Our findings show increased and sustained MH knowledge and attitudes towards mental health in the intervention group at 2- and 12-months evaluation and mixed results regarding help-seeking and perceived stress.

Implications: Our findings show promising results on the effectiveness of a school-based mental health literacy intervention in improving mental health knowledge and attitudes towards mental health in a Romanian adolescent sample.

Keywords: school mental health literacy (MHL) MHL intervention effectiveness, adolescents’ attitudes towards mental health.