The Peer Education Project to improve mental health literacy in secondary school students in England: a qualitative realist evaluation.

Background: Worsening of adolescent mental health and exacerbated health inequalities after the COVID-19 pandemic calls for universal preventative strategies. The Mental Health Foundation's school-based Peer Education Project seeks to improve students' mental health literacy through peer educators (aged 14-18 years) teaching peer learners (aged 11-13 years) to recognise good and bad mental health, identify risk and protective factors, and seek help accordingly. Although previous before and after quantitative assessments have found the intervention to be effective, this realist evaluation aimed to qualitatively develop the theory of change, exploring how the mechanisms played out in different contexts to achieve the desired outcomes.

Snacking and anxiety during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic: A prospective cohort study.

Anxiety and snacking increased during the initial coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdowns, but it remains unknown whether this change in snacking persisted and if it related to anxiety levels. We used prospective data to examine changes in snacking frequency from t1 (eased restrictions in England in May-June 2020) to t2 (national lockdown in December 2020-March 2021), the association of anxiety (assessed by the Generalised Anxiety Disorder-7 questionnaire at t1) with the snacking change, and the mediating and moderating effects of disinhibition and flexible restraint (assessed by the Three Factor Eating Questionnaire in 2016-17). Analyses including 2128 adults (mean age 28.

School-based peer education interventions to improve health: a global systematic review of effectiveness.

Introduction: Peer education, whereby peers ('peer educators') teach their other peers ('peer learners') about aspects of health is an approach growing in popularity across school contexts, possibly due to adolescents preferring to seek help for health-related concerns from their peers rather than adults or professionals. Peer education interventions cover a wide range of health areas but their overall effectiveness remains unclear. This review aims to summarise the effectiveness of existing peer-led health interventions implemented in schools worldwide.