Effects of a Content-Area Reading and Writing Intervention With Embedded Mental Health Literacy on Academic and Wellbeing Outcomes

Students with reading difficulties in secondary school may experience co-occurring socio-emotional needs, yet few interventions have addressed both domains in an integrated format. This study evaluated an intervention combining reading and writing instruction with embedded mental health literacy (MHL) sessions for Year 7–8 students (N = 12) with reading difficulties and elevated socio-emotional risks. The intervention was delivered across three UK secondary schools using a clustered multiple-baseline single-case design. Findings indicated strong and replicated evidence of a functional relation for writing. Reading fluency growth was generally positive and effects were temporally coincident with intervention introduction, though within-cluster variability was evident. Reading comprehension results, measured using MAZE, were suggestive but inconclusive due to limited assessment occasions and substantial overlap. Socio-emotional wellbeing data showed no reliable intervention effect across the sample. The findings suggest that the severity of students' baseline socio-emotional profiles may constrain what MHL instruction can achieve within a short intervention window, highlighting a gap in the existing MHL evidence base.