Managing youth leisure mass gatherings: A coordinated service response for ‘Safer Schoolies’

Mass gatherings are a public health challenge because of crowdedness and associated health risks. ‘Schoolies’ is the largest youth leisure mass gathering in Australia. We examine a coordinated service response called ‘Safer Schoolies’, which aims to manage risks and optimise health and wellbeing for Schoolies attendees and the surrounding community. We examine ‘Safer Schoolies’ in a leisure context from a social identity theory-informed perspective;describe the coordinated service response;demonstrate a practical model of data collection, measurement and baselining;and report trends from a survey-based research programme with five annual cohorts of young people who attended Schoolies (N = 1,588). Findings show attendees have strong levels of trust in, and feel highly identified with, their friends at Schoolies, with low psychological distress on average. Service perceptions and help-seeking intentions improved over time, with cohorts increasingly considering service providers to be safe and viable sources of support. As societies continue to open up following COVID-19 restrictions, these insights can inform targeted surveillance and coordinated management of leisure pursuits in youth mass gathering settings. [ FROM AUTHOR]

A Narrative Review of Peer-Led Positive Psychology Interventions: Current Evidence, Potential, and Future Directions.

Positive psychology interventions are an effective means for cultivating flourishing, addressing low levels of wellbeing, and preventing languishing. Peer-led interventions can be a particularly advantageous delivery method of positive psychology interventions, as participants tend to respond more favourably to people that they can identify with personally. Such interventions have been applied in a variety of settings and populations, but the literature on peer-led positive psychology interventions has not yet been summarised. This paper provides a narrative overview of peer-led positive psychology interventions. We reviewed relevant peer-led interventions, assessed the available evidence on their effectiveness, and highlighted promising opportunities for peer-led positive psychology interventions. We found that the majority of the studies were observational in design but showed a high level of acceptability for participants across the reviewed domains. In particular, schools, workplaces, the aged care sector, and community settings are noted as promising target domains for these interventions. However, more studies-particularly high-quality research-will be needed to comprehensively test the effectiveness of peer-led positive psychology interventions. We discuss opportunities for future research in this field.

COVID-safe behaviour before, during and after a youth mass gathering event: a longitudinal cohort study.

OBJECTIVE: As mass gathering events resume in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a pressing need to understand (a) engagement in COVID-safe behaviour at these events and (b) how attending a mass gathering impacts subsequent behaviours. This study examined anticipated COVID-safe behaviour before, during, and after a youth mass gathering event. DESIGN: Longitudinal cohort study. SETTING: Self-report data were collected online at five timepoints from secondary-school graduates participating in celebrations linked to an annual week-long youth mass gathering event in Australia. PARTICIPANTS: Australian secondary-school graduates completed surveys before the event (N=397), on days 1 (N=183), 3 (N=158) and 5 (N=163) of the event, and 3 weeks after the event (N=140). Of those who completed the first survey, 72 indicated they would attend a primary mass gathering site where the largest mass gathering of graduates in Australia occurs in a typical (non-pandemic) year; 325 indicated they would be celebrating at other locations (ie, secondary sites). PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Anticipated COVID-safe behaviour: physical distancing from friends and strangers and additional protective behaviours (hand hygiene and mask wearing). RESULTS: At all timepoints, participants anticipated maintaining appropriate (>1.5 m) physical distance from strangers, but not from friends (<0.5 m). Attendees at the primary site reported less physical distancing from friends over time throughout the mass gathering, χ2(4)=16.89, p=0.002. Physical distancing from strangers, χ2(4)=26.93, p<0.001, and additional protective behaviours, χ2(4)=221.23, p<0.001, also declined across the mass gathering among both groups. These reductions in COVID-safe behaviour were significant and enduring, with all declines persisting at follow-up. CONCLUSION: It is critical that public health messaging and interventions emphasise the risks of disease transmission arising from other attendees who are known to us during mass gathering events, and that such messaging is sustained during and following the event to combat reductions in COVID-safe behaviour.