The promotion of mental well-being among vocational students.

Mental health problems are of particular concern among adolescents. Mental health problems contribute importantly to the
overall burden of disease of youth, and in addition, and have been related to for instance school drop-out . Early mental
problems are an important predictor of mental disorders later in life. Recent policy changes support prevention of mental health problems at an early age. Vocational school students (ROC) seem disproportionally affected: One third of vocational students report mental health problems, including headaches, worries, unhappiness and anxiety. These students are often from disadvantaged groups. Hence, there is an urgent need to target these students, with the aim of promoting psychological well-being.
Low psychological well-being, emotional and behavioural problems may result from unsuccessful or inadequate goal striving.
Personal goals are an important reflection of the self, and fulfil fundamental psychological needs. Personal goals guide daily
behaviour and social interactions. In some cases this can constitute a vicious circle of risky behaviours and unfulfilled
psychological needs leading to lower well-being. On the other hand when goal pursuit is successful and psychological needs
such as that of affiliation are met, well-being is high. In addition, previous studies have shown that goal regulation skills are
amenable to change, with interventions showing promising results: improved study results, school attendance, and subjective
well-being.
The project objective is to increase adequate goal striving and self-regulatory skills among vocational students, with the
ultimate goal of promoting psychological well-being. In order to reach our aim we will develop, implement and evaluate a
goal-based intervention targeting 16-18 year old ROC students. The intervention should (1) stimulate selection of desirable and intrinsic goals in order to promote competency and autonomy, and subsequently psychological well-being/mental health, (2) teach flexible and adaptive goal striving strategies in order to ensure successful goal attainment. Successful achievement of
important personal goals is likely to contribute to well-being and to reduce the likelihood of emotional problems, negative affect, incl. depression and anxiety. Secondary benefits examined are (1) school attendance and performance, and (2) behavioural problems and health compromising behaviours, and (3) (intrinsic) goal ownership. The project consists of four phases aimed at
the development and evaluation of a goal-based intervention: 1) A planned approach is taken in order to reach our objectives, the project comprising four phases: (1) the identification of effective goal striving strategies by means of a systematic review, 2) systematic program planning, based on Intervention
Mapping, starting with identification of program objectives, 3) program development and pretesting, using 4) intervention evaluation. The final evaluation will be based on a cluster-RCT where classes as units will be randomized between the goal intervention and a waiting list control trial. Effects will be examined at 3- and 6-month follow-up, psychological well-being being the primary outcome.

Students exposed to the newly developed intervention have a higher well-being compared to students that did not receive this intervention.

Baseline, 3 months and six months.

We developed a class intervention to promote mental wellbeing, where we defines wellbeing as having fullfilled the need for autonomy, mastery and relatedness. The intervention is based on self-regulation theory and aims to support adolescents in goal identification, setting and achievement. It is delivered by the teacher and includes a variety of individual, paired and plenary exercises. Important methods for change are discussion, social support, modelling, practice and planning. The intervention includes 5 modules, which each last apprxoimately 2 class hours, and 4 optional exercises. Teachers can make their own lesson plan, based on the exercises within one module. Module 1 is aimed at identification of the ideal selve. Module 2 aims for translation to a specific goal. Module 3 aims at preparation of goal achievement. Module 4 discusses goal achievement and the importance of social support. Module 5 is aimed at monitoring and evaluation of change. Together, these modules will help the students to identify their goals with respect to autonomy, relatedness and mastery, and work towards them. As such, well-being of the students will improve.



The control group will be on a waiting list, i.e. these classes can use the intervention after the trial. During the trial they receive the normal lessons of their teachers, which usually don't include anything on mental wellbeing.