School-research partnerships: a model for health promotion intervention programs in school settings

The intervention literature frequently suggests that effective research in health promotion programs is more likely to occur when researchers are cognizant of and responsive to the nature and needs of the host environment. This paper initially outlines the policies, responsibilities, needs and resources of the Victorian school system in the area of affective education. The Bright Ideas program (Brandon & Cunningham, 1999a, 1999b), a program that is embedded within the framework of rational emotive education and teaches optimistic thinking skills, was developed and implemented for students in 5th- and 6th- grade in Victorian primary schools in response to identified school needs. The expectation that school-based personnel take a more proactive role in the emotional education of all students, together with issues of cost effectiveness, resulted in a model in which classroom teachers and school psychologists jointly implemented the program. The findings from various studies that support the efficacy of the program and its method of implementation in increasing the coping resources of young people are then reported. Results support the feasibility of implementing school based low-cost programs that address the emotional health of young people when the program intervention goals are congruent with the goals of system.