Improving School Climate and Children's Well-being Through the Life Skills "Feel Good" Intervention in French Schools: A Controlled Before-and-After Study

Summary

Life skills are major determinants of health that can be influenced through health promotion initiatives. Numerous educational interventions exist to foster the development of life skills. However, few interventions have been validated in France. The Feel Good program has been implemented for six years by CRIPS Île-de-France, particularly to address these public health challenges related to promoting children's health. Its goal is to improve life skills and the school climate among children in the 4th and 5th grades (CM1 and CM2). A playful, interactive, and recurring approach to developing PSS at school is expected to effectively promote a positive school climate and enhance children's well-being at school.

The main objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a school-based life skills development program in improving school climate and children's well-being, through a before-after, here-elsewhere (control group) design.

This action-research project adopts an interdisciplinary approach and will use mixed methods to evaluate the intervention. Three components are planned: 1) the study of implementation, 2) the effectiveness evaluation (main objective), and 3) the development of recommendations for the development and evaluation of such interventions. A theoretical model of change has been developed for the effectiveness study, aligned with process data. The project has received ethical and regulatory approvals (UPC and Inserm), and a pilot study has already been conducted. The expected outcomes include scientific knowledge on the validity of health promotion programs based on the development of life skills for children. The project also aims to develop research methodologies for evaluating health promotion interventions (evidence-based data) and to establish recommendations (replicability), as well as for other themes or populations (transferability).

Conditions

• Child Behavior
• Life Skill Development
• School Health
• School
• Mental Health
• Children
• Life Skills

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

FEEL GOOD

The Feel Good intervention has been implemented for 6 years with a child population. The intervention is based on a validated intervention : the Well-Being and School Climate program (BECS). It is built on scientific contributions from Positive Psychology research, tested and validated in several United Kingdom schools. Ten 1-hour sessions are conducted with 4th and 5th grade children, with themed sessions such as: Developing strengths and observing the diversity of strengths in class / Learning and applying principles of empathetic listening to improve social relationships / Identifying emotions and exploring their role. Sessions are co-facilitated by a CRIPS facilitator and a trained teacher. Three parent workshops are offered.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• INSERM U1123 ECEVE

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• APHP Robert Debré Public health department

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Université Paris Cité

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Philippe MARTIN, PhD Public Health · Université Paris Cité, Inserm

Study Design

Allocation

NON_RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age

8 Years

Max Age

12 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2026-01-01

Primary Completion

2027-01-01

Completion

2027-01-01

Countries

• France

Study Locations