Background: School-based interventions (SBIs) are well-established and effective treatments for improving child mental health. Specific school-based topics include prevention (Tier I-III) and interventions (e.g. cognitive-behavioural programmes and daily report cards).
Methods: We performed a systematic literature search in five commonly used online databases (ERIC, MEDLINE, PsycARTICLES, PsycINFO and PSYNDEX) for English-language articles published between 1993 and 2015. Additional sources included reference lists of relevant articles and book chapters.
Results: We identified a number of successful behavioural or cognitive-behavioural programmes yielding moderate to strong effects for a range of emotional and behavioural problems. The implementation of these programmes and the collaboration of the involved settings (school and home) and persons are important factors for their effectiveness under real-life conditions.
Conclusions: Effective SBIs are valuable tools for students with mental health problems if evidence-based cognitive-behavioural interventions are applied and rules of translational algorithms and implementation science are respected.
Keywords: Schoolchildren; behaviour therapy; intervention; prevention; school.
© 2016 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.