Brief experiential modules are feasible and superior to didactic methods for reducing stigma among rural adolescent girls, with significant attitudinal improvements observed exclusively in girls receiving experiential teaching.
Significant attitudinal improvements were observed exclusively in girls who received experiential teaching, not in the didactic group.
Stigma-related perceptions regarding 'unfair treatment' showed a significant positive shift in the experiential group girls.
Stigma-related perceptions regarding 'fear of seeking help' showed a significant positive shift in the experiential group girls.
School-based mental health programs in India predominantly employ didactic approaches, which are effective for knowledge transfer but rarely reduce stigma.
Brief experiential modules were found to be feasible for delivery in a resource-constrained rural school setting.
This research suggests that how mental health education is taught to teenagers matters just as much as what is taught. The study compared two approaches in rural Indian schools: a standard lecture-style (didactic) session versus a hands-on, participatory (experiential) session, each lasting two hours. Researchers measured students' attitudes toward mental health before and after the sessions using a questionnaire, focusing on whether stigma-related beliefs changed. The key finding was that meaningful attitude changes occurred only among girls who participated in the experiential session. Specifically, these girls showed improved views on two important issues: the unfair treatment of people with mental illness, and the fear that prevents people from seeking help. The lecture-based group showed little to no change in attitudes. This suggests that simply providing information about mental health is not enough to change how young people feel about it — active, engaging activities appear necessary to shift stigma. This research matters because mental health stigma is a major barrier to young people seeking help when they need it. The fact that a single two-hour experiential session produced measurable attitude changes in a low-resource rural school setting suggests that this type of program could be practical to implement more widely. The study also raises questions about why the effect was seen only in girls and not boys, which future research may need to address. The authors suggest that school mental health programs should move beyond traditional lectures and incorporate participatory methods to achieve real behavioral change.
Venkatesan V, Ramanathan B, Vijayan S, Sivakumar P, Selvaraj A, Jaikumar H, et al.. (2026). Utilizing short experiential teaching methods for school mental health awareness among adolescents from Rural India - A Quasi experimental pilot study.. Asian journal of psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2026.104872