Student Knowledge, Attitudes, and Experiences of Receiving Coping Power-Rural: A Universal, Preventative, Coping Intervention Adapted for Delivery in Rural Schools

The U.S. government reports that children are facing a mental health crisis. Youth in rural areas face increased barriers to accessing mental health support and experience higher suicide rates. National guidelines recommend embedding universal, evidence-based preventative programs in schools that target social and emotional learning. Research on student knowledge, everyday use, and usefulness of these programs is limited. The current study aimed to address gaps in the literature by investigating changes in youth’s coping skill knowledge, coping behaviors and attitudes and perspectives towards the Coping Power-Rural program (CP-R), a 12-week preventative, universal, classroom-based intervention that has been adapted from Coping Power for delivery in rural upper elementary schools. A mixed methods design was utilized and pre and post surveys and interviews were conducted in one rural, Appalachian elementary school. Findings revealed, youth’s coping skill knowledge was significantly higher after receiving CP-R. Most youth expressed positive attitudes towards CP-R and indicated that they had already used or intended to use the skills they had learned. Interview data revealed four themes that detail both the helpfulness of the intervention and youth proposed changes. Findings support the use of CP-R in rural schools and continued evaluation and adaptation based on student views.