A Systematic Review of Mental Health Literacy Measures for Children and Adolescents

Mental health literacy is an essential part of preventing mental illnesses. However, the quality of mental health literacy measures remain unknown, as does its universality across various settings and populations. Few studies focus on measures aimed at assessing mental health literacy of children and adolescents that covers knowledge about mental health and mental disorders, strategies to decrease stigma, and enhancement of help-seeking efficacy. The present study aimed to conduct a systematic search to find available measures of mental health literacy of children and adolescents under the age of 19 years. The following databases were searched: Web of Science, PubMed, PsycINFO, MEDLINE, ERIC and CINAHL Plus. COSMIN checklist was applied to assess the methodological quality of each study. Twenty-one mental health literacy measures were identified in 18 studies. The quality of the studies ranged between very good and inadequate. Sixteen measures were universal, implying that they were not diagnostic specific. Two measures scored a full score of four on mental health literacy comprehensiveness. This review revealed that the overall quality of the measurement properties was mixed, that there are limited measures available to evaluate non-diagnostic-specific mental health literacy in universal populations of children and adolescents, and that measures fail to cover key mental health literacy components of knowledge of mental health, illness, stigma, and help-seeking. New measures should be developed to cover this gap in the field of child and adolescent mental health.