Manuscript: “Can Mental Health Education Using a Storybook Reduce Mental Illness Stigma in Children?” (Doctoral Thesis)
Resource: He Shoots He Scores
Authors/Developers: Judeline Innocent, “Opening Minds” program - Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC)
He Shoots He Scores
A Brief Anti-Stigma Intervention for Adolescents, Utilizing a Children’s Story Book
“This study was funded by the Opening Minds Initiative of the Mental Health Commission of Canada to: First, investigate the effectiveness of providing children ages 11-14 with mental illness education using a storybook in order to reduce their mental illness stigma; and, second, to examine children’s perceptions of the anti-stigma book used to provide the education. The results show that the exposure to an educational storybook about children's mental illness stigma was effective in reducing the percentage of negative responses at post-test. The participants used less negative words to describe someone “with a mental illness”. An improvement in the overall scores at post-test was seen for both stereotype and social distance.” - Innocent 2013
Key Findings
This brief storybook anti-stigma intervention receives a rating of 4.
The single-study evaluating the storybook reported modest, but occasionally inconsistent reductions in stigma of mental illness following the intervention. Stigma was assessed by measuring students’ levels of mental illness stereotyping and desire for social distance between themselves and someone with a mental illness.
Overall, there was a small improvement in stigma among the secondary school students (ages 11-15, grades 6-8). However, a greater proportion of students indicated higher stigma on two measures of stereotypy following the intervention, compared to their attitudes measured before the storybook.
This intervention has been shown to have non-significant positive effects on the following key-pillars of Mental Health Literacy:
- Knowledge
- Help Seeking
- Stigma
- Obtaining & Maintaining Positive Mental Health
- Recognition of Mental Disorders
Knowledge, Obtaining & Maintaining Positive Mental Health, and Recognition of Mental Disorders, Stigma, and Help Seeking were not quantitatively measured in the relevant literature. Thus we have no insight into this program’s efficacy with respect to these key pillars.
This resource is not a curriculum in and of itself. Rather, it is a pilot test to evaluate the storybook “he shoots he scores” in reducing the stigma of mental illness among students ages 11-15. The author provides brief recommendations for future research in this area. However, in its current form, this study is very limited insofar as generalizing to the general public.
(Ratings of 4-6 are not scored for dissemination readiness)
For more information on our scoring system, criteria, and outcomes for He Shoots He Scores, please see the Evaluation Process & Scoring page
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