Harry Potter Curriculum für psy. Resilienz bei Jugendlichen

Adolescent mental ill-health is a major public health problem. A prevention strategy that has received increasing support in recent years are school-based interventions with a focus on skills development. Another promising yet under-researched type of intervention are media interventions. Previous studies suggest that reading stories about personal coping with adversities has small-sized but clinically meaningful effects in terms of a short-term reduction in suicide risk factors, the Papageno effect. It appears likely that such media effects can be boosted in longer-term interventions that include the active working with media portrayals beyond sheer exposure to stories alone. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling can be read as a classic story of mental health resilience building in the light of adversity. The aim of this project is to assess effects of a guided media intervention focused on the reading of the book to improve mental health resilience among 11-15-year-olds. We aim to assess if working with the book in a school setting in German language classes using exercises from the specifically designed Harry Potter Curriculum (HPC) has positive effects on reasons for living as an indicator of suicidal ideation, suicide attempt, self-efficacy, depressive symptoms, anxiety and coping skills in 11-15-year-olds. School classes with approximately 1200 pupils will participate in the study. We will asses mental health of students before the reading task, afterwards (approximately three months later), and again 6 months later. Group discussions with students who participated in the HPC and with teachers delivering the curriculum will serve to gain further insight into experiences with the HPC. In spite of the widely acknowledged relevance of interventions to strengthen mental health resilience in youth, there is a dearth of knowledge on interventions that help increase mental health resilience. This study provides a much-needed opportunity to bridge the gap between research on effects of skills training in schools and media interventions about the Papageno effect. The findings can make an essential contribution to support mental health resilience in youth.