Efficacy of the Mentalization Improvement Program for Adolescent (MIPAdo) for Enhancement of Mental Health in School Children

OBJECTIVES: Understanding the emotions, thoughts, feelings and behaviors of others, as well as oneself, is part of the mentalizing function. We developed a new school-based community model for mental health, called the Mentalization Improvement Program for Adolescent-Community Model (MIPAdo-CM), based on the concept of mentalization. METHODS: The MIPAdo-CM was composed of 12 sessions and was applied to 403 students in the 2nd grade of a middle school. Every session was conducted after the regular school hours for 6 weeks. After 6 weeks, we compared the endpoint changes of Adolescent Mental Problem Questionnaire-Revised (AMPQ-R), Emotional Empathy Test (EET), Peer Aggression Scale (PAS), Peer Bullying Scale (PBS), School Adjustment Scale (SAS), Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI) and Visual Analogue Scale between the subject and the control group. RESULTS: There was no significant difference between two groups in AMPQ-R, EET, PAS, PBS, SAS, and TAI. On the Visual Analoge Scale, however, students in the trial classes reported more increase in understanding and respect for both others and themselves. CONCLUSION: The efficacy of MIPAdo-CM was subjective improvement of understanding and respect for both others and themselves, erence between two groups in AMPQ-R, Empathy test, To prove objective usefulness of this program, further studies with more structured design will be needed.

Efficacy of the Short Form of Mentalization Improvement Program for Adolescent (MIPAdo) for Enhancement of Mental Health in School Children

OBJECTIVES: We developed the short form of the Mentalization Improvement Program for Adolescent-Community Model (MIPAdo-CM-S), based on the concept of the mentalization. METHODS: The MIPAdo-CM was composed of 6 sessions and was applied to 133 students in the 1st grade of a middle school for six weeks during their regular school hours. After 6 weeks, we compared the endpoint changes of Adolescent Mental Problem Questionnaire-Revised (AMPQ-R), Emotional Empathy Test, Peer Aggression Scale, Peer Bullying Scale, School Adjustment Scale, Test Anxiety Inventory and Visual Analogue Scale between the subject and the control group. RESULTS: On the Visual Analoge Scale, students in the trial classes reported an increased understanding and respect for others, as well as themselves. CONCLUSION: The efficacy of MIPAdo-CM was subjective improvement of understanding and respect for both others and themselves. To prove objective usefulness of this program, further studies should be administered in the form of long-term, regular and structured courses.