Short Writing 2: Taking Notes On Related Studies

Identify five studies that you believe are closely related to your own research That meansyou would like to build your study upon these studies in terms of research questions or methodology, or you hope the authors of these studies would read your study down the road.

Take detailed notes on their research questions, methods, and findings, and place your notes in a table like the one introduced in Becoming a Social Science Researcher, Chapter 4. In your notes, you may quote from these studies and write down their page numbers. Toward the end of the table, in one or two new rows, jot down the patterns that you have noted about these studies' research questions, methods, and findings.

Background: There is an increasing need for Mental Health Promotion (MHP) among adolescents, especially in

developing countries with limited resources and rapid socio-demographic transition. With the growing burden of

mental health problems among adolescents (suicide, depression) and their preferences to seek help from their

peers, improving Mental Health Literacy (MHL) and behaviours for First Aid in Mental Health (MH-FA) becomes

crucial to promote their mental health.

Methods: Schools are ideal settings for reaching the vulnerable adolescents. The proposed study evaluates the

effectiveness of a classroom-based teacher-led integrated school mental health intervention called SUMS (MHP +

MHL + MH-FA). The study will involve a pragmatic, cluster-randomised waitlist-controlled design to evaluate the

effectiveness of SUMS intervention using schools as unit-of-randomisation. The study will be conducted in Srinivaspura

taluka (Sub-district) of Kolar district (administrative unit of health) of Karnataka in collaboration with a multi-disciplinary

expert team from NIMHANS (National Institute of Mental Health And Neuro Sciences), Bangalore-India and Department

of Education, Government of Karnataka, India. A total of 8 schools (400 students studying in 6-8 grade) from

Srinivaspura taluka will be randomised into intervention and waitlist control group. The intervention group will receive

SUMS intervention through 10-15 h of classroom sessions. The primary outcome is the improvement in positive

mental health literacy, as measured by the Mental Health-Promoting Knowledge (MHPK-10) scale. Changes in MH-FA

knowledge and intentions, Mental health stigma, help-seeking and resilience are assessed as secondary outcomes.

Data will be collected at baseline, 6-weeks, 6-months and 12-months post-intervention. The waitlist-control schools will

receive the interventions at the end of the 12-month follow-up assessment in intervention-schools.

Discussion: This is the first study to integrate Mental Health Literacy with Mental Health Promotion and behaviours for

First Aid in Mental Health to promote mental health well-being among adolescent school children in India. With a

need to build a more substantial evidence base on School Mental Health Promotion approaches in developing

countries, the study findings will have implications for implementing and operationalising Health and Wellness

Ambassador initiative in India.

Trial registration: Clinical Trials Registry - India, CTRI/2019/07/020394. Registered prospectively on 29 July 2019. (ctri.

nic.in/Clinicaltrials/pmaindet2.php?trialid=35724&EncHid=&userName=sums).

Keywords: Mental health literacy, Mental health promotion, First aid in mental health, School mental health, Resilience,