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HeaLS - Effects of the implementation of the interdisciplinary topic “Health and Life Skills” in schools

Project description

How to implement health and life skills in schools

Mental health is a global challenge, with Norway carrying a significant burden. Half of chronic mental disorders manifest before age 14, and youth mental health issues are on the rise. In response, Norway is implementing health and life skills (HLS) subjects in primary and secondary schools, equipping students with tools for better mental health and self-efficacy. However, there are great variations in how HLS are implemented due to a lack of national guidelines. Funded by the European Research Council, the HeaLS project aims to evaluate how these variations in implementation impact the effects of HLS lessons on mental health, quality of life, school environment, academic performance, and dropout rates. By gathering data from teachers, school principals, and pupils, the project seeks to uncover the key to successful HLS implementation.

Objective

"Mental illness is a major health burden worldwide and the health problems with the heaviest financial burden in Norway. Half of chronic mental disorders emerge before the age of 14, and mental health problems in youth are increasing. The Norwegian government has implemented the interdisciplinary topic ""Health and life skills"" (HLS) in primary and secondary education to provide pupils with competences to promote health and self-efficacy. School-based interventions may improve mental health and academic performance, but their effects depend on the quality of implementation. There are large variations in how HLS is implemented within and across schools due to lack of national guidelines and a reliance on teachers’ professional judgement. Delayed implementation for some grades and longitudinal nationwide registry linkages forms a natural experiment and rare opportunity to investigate the impact of diverse implementation methods of a politically determined, long-term and population-wide measure.
The aim of this interdisciplinary study is to evaluate how variations in the implementation of HLS relate to the intervention’s effect on pupils' mental health, quality of life, school environment, academic performance and dropout. We will collect new HLS implementation data from 5,000 teachers/employees, 1,000 school principals and 180 school owners. Information from these key samples will be combined with prior linked data for 750 000 pupils from existing national registries and large surveys, including educational, health and background information.

The research group includes researchers specialized in education, mental and public health, health promotion, classroom research, school surveys, register-based studies and advanced multi-level methods.

The evaluation may affect further implementation and practice of HLS nationally and globally, and thereby promote pupils’ mental health and academic performance and thus also their future."

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

Keywords

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Funding Scheme

HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants

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Call for proposal

(opens in new window) ERC-2022-COG

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Host institution

UNIVERSITETET I OSLO
Net EU contribution
€ 1 584 405,00
Address
PROBLEMVEIEN 5-7
0313 Oslo
Norway
Region
Norge Oslo og Viken Oslo
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
€ 1 614 866,00

Beneficiaries (3)