Sidekicks: Promoting Students’ Personal and Social Skills

Abstract

The literature on student mental health suggests that students frequently seek help from family and friends when they experience distress. Past research also indicates that peers lack effective helping skills to support a friend in need. In 2013 and 2014 a five-session program named Sidekicks was piloted by the Counselling and Psychological Services (CAPS) at the University of Sydney to promote peer support capacity. The program aimed to train and equip students to effectively manage a situation where their support would make a difference to a fellow student. The program provided a theoretical overview of psychological issues consistent with Acceptance and Mindfulness approaches to mental health. In addition, students were provided skills training in empathic listening and responding, self-regulation, and referring to professional help. This study aimed to report the effectiveness of that program. Scores for measures completed pre-program were compared to scores for measures completed post-program on outcomes of confidence, stigma, and instances of helping others for 58 program completers. Data were analysed using paired t-tests and Wilcoxon Signed Rank Tests. These analyses indicated that the program resulted in a statistically significant reduction of stigma in regard to someone consulting a mental health professional, a reduction in stigma regarding self referral to a mental health professional, and an improvement in perceived self-confidence regarding peer assistance. While there appeared to be no changes in the frequency of peer assistance, the Sidekicks program results suggest its effectiveness in both increasing confidence regarding peer assistance, and attitude change, i.e., stigma reductions in terms of acceptability of access to professional support. The implications of these findings are discussed in reference to integrated student development and developing social capital.