Youth Net

Resource/Manuscript:
YNRA.ca
"Does Youth Net Decrease Mental Illness Stigma in High School” Students?" DOI: 10.7870/cjcmh-2013-023

Developer/Authors:
YNRA.ca
Linda o’Mara, Noori Akhtar-Danesh, Gina Browne, Daina Mueller, Lorraine Grypstra, Cheryl Vrkljan, Malcolm Powell

Key Findings

The ‘Youth Net’ campaign receives a rating of 6.

We only found one study evaluating ‘Youth Net’ that satisfied our criteria. This study was from 2012, and may not reflect the effectiveness of ‘Youth Net’ programs at present. Our judgment of effectiveness will be updated to reflect new and emerging literature on an ongoing basis.

This program has produced statistically 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

This campaign was designed to assess and improve help seeking and stigma with respect to mental health. However, students who participated in the program displayed overall higher levels of stigma after the program concluded. It should be noted that students who did not participate in the program (the control group) displayed a much higher increase in stigma over the same period of time. This may suggest a potential protective effect of the program on students’ overall stigma levels, but there is no targeted evidence supporting this hypothesis.

Knowledge, Obtaining & Maintaining Positive Mental Health, and Recognition of Mental Disorders were not quantitatively measured in the relevant literature. Thus we have no insight into this program’s efficacy with respect to these key pillars.

While overall stigma levels increased following the intervention, girls who participated in the program displayed a marginally significant decrease in stigma compared to boys, who produced much higher levels of stigma.

Based on our research, it appears that ‘Youth Net’ has grown as an organization since these results were published in 2012. ‘Youth Net’ appears to have diversified and established programs for different end-users. There appears to be little empirical evidence of the effectiveness of these programs based on our search and understanding of the literature. However, our assessments will be updated to reflect new and emerging literature on an ongoing basis.

Youth Net Rating: 5

(Ratings of 4-6 are not scored for dissemination readiness)

evalutation rating guide 5

For more information on our scoring system, criteria, and outcomes for Youth Net, please see the Evaluation Process & Scoring page