Finding a Needle in a Haystack: A Systematic Approach for Searching Through Public Databases for Youth Mental Well-Being Programs.

Background: This practice paper exemplifies a systematic approach used to learn about existing mental well-being programs for youth 11-14 years to inform curriculum development for after-school settings.

Methods: We reviewed 3389 mental well-being programs from publicly accessed databases and conducted a content analysis using inductive and deductive coding to explore the domains each program addressed.

Results: Through our content analysis of the final eight programs, we found strong alignment with the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) core social-emotional competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and decision-making.

Implications for practice: Although using established processes (e.g., PICO, CFIR) to review public databases is an effective research strategy, engaging in research-intensive endeavors is time consuming and may not be practical for after-school administration. The benefits of community-academic partnerships, such as EMPOWER, are highlighted as an approach, and opportunity, to promote evidence-based research practices to inform programming in community organizations.

Conclusion: Enhancing youth social emotional competencies is an important means to supporting youth mental well-being. Incorporating a systematic approach to select youth mental well-being programs provides a structure, for our EMPOWER project, that can steer the choice of curricula to meet the needs of after-school program contexts.