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Description
Children today are experiencing rising rates of anxiety, peer conflict, and emotional distress, yet many lack access to preventative mental health services. Wellness4Kids (formerly Move & Shine) is an integrated program model that pairs mental health education and social-emotional learning with movement based, experiential activities to build coping skills and resilience in youth before crises emerge. This program model is guided by three research questions concerning emotional awareness and long-term coping skill development. The program has been implemented across diverse community and school settings in California, Missouri, and Belize, reaching more than 3,458 students to date. The evaluation combined program specific feedback, teacher feedback, direct observation, and participation tracking. Across all three pilot sites, findings suggested high student engagement, increased emotional awareness and coping skills understanding based on participant responses, teacher feedback, and direct observation, along with strong teacher buy in and interest in program continuation from partnering schools and organizations. Results suggest that pairing movement with social-emotional learning is a promising, scalable strategy for delivering preventative mental health education to youth across varied cultural and geographic contexts. These findings have implications for school-based prevention programming, community partnerships, and the development of future youth mental health curricula.
Publication Date
2026
Keywords
youth mental health, prevention, movement-based learning, social-emotional learning, school-based intervention, resilience
Disciplines
Early Childhood Education