title: An evaluative review of outcome research on universal mental health promotion and prevention programs for higher education students.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This review is the first large-scale attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of universal promotion and prevention programs for higher education students on a range of adjustment outcomes.
  
  
  METHODS
  The current review examined 83 controlled interventions involving college, graduate, and professional students, with a focus on 3 main outcomes: social and emotional skills, self-perceptions, and emotional distress.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Skill-oriented programs that included supervised practice demonstrated the strongest benefits, thus showing promise as a successful mental health promotion and preventive intervention. In comparing different intervention strategies, mindfulness training and cognitive-behavioral techniques appear to be the most effective. Furthermore, interventions conducted as a class appear to be effective, suggesting the potential for exposing higher education students to skill training through routine curricula offerings. This review offers recommendations for improving the experimental rigor of future research, and implications for enhancing campus services to optimize student success in psychosocial--and thus ultimately academic--domains.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60626, USA. cconley@luc.edu
authors.forename: Colleen S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Conley
authors.forename: Joseph A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Durlak
authors.forename: Daniel A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Dickson
mesh_terms: D004644:Emotions; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000628:therapy*; D008603:Mental Health; D012649:Self Concept; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000628:therapy; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D014495:Universities