Bridge to Better: Testing a universally delivered self-harm prevention program in Australian primary schools

Overview: The Bridge-to-Better (B2B) intervention is a comprehensive, ecological approach to universal prevention, designed to influence all aspects of the classroom — curriculum, pedagogy/practice, organisation, and climate. It involves a 3-part ‘staged’ approach to component delivery: Part 1: Setting Up Supportive Classrooms – modifying/enhancing routines and built environments of classrooms (Module 1) Part 2: Connected classrooms – building relational care, autonomy support teaching practice/pedagogy (Modules 2–4) Part 3: Emotion regulation skills training – strengthening students’ internal resources to adaptively manage emotions (Modules 5–7) These components will be delivered through a combination of online teacher training, classroom modifications, and classroom activities (including an animated video series). The intervention will be delivered to all children (regardless of risk for self-harm) in stages 2 and 3 (Years 3-6) of NSW primary schools. As a universal, whole–of–classroom, delivery model, the intervention will not be tailored or personalised to individuals or groups. Program structure: The intervention is comprised of 7 Modules, covering Parts 1–3 of B2B. Within these, there are 15 teacher–training sessions (10–15 minutes each) and 70 classrooms activities that are delivered over a 26-week period, by teachers (face-to-face) – during class time. As per our ‘staged’ delivery approach (Parts 1–3), the classroom connectedness/classroom climate components will be initiated first (Parts 1, 2; Modules 1–4), approximately 8 weeks before introducing the emotion regulation component (Part 3). Once the first emotion regulation Modules are introduced (Modules 5–7), all 'Parts' of the program will run in parallel. Exposure: Part 1 (2 weeks): Setting Up Supportive Classrooms. Teachers complete 1 x 15-minute online training module and learn simple practices for modifying their class routines and classroom environments that are then integrated daily over the 26-week period. Part 2: Teachers complete 5x 15–minute online training modules over 8 weeks (total = 75mins) focused on strengths–based, autonomy supported teach practices. They learn to continuously implement these practices into their pedagogy. They also learn simple relational practices and establish a peer–recognition system. Part 3: Teachers complete 9x 15-minute online training modules over 18 weeks (total = 135mins) to learn emotion regulation skills, and to model these for students. The emotion regulation skills these will learn are: emotional awareness, functions of emotions, self-compassion, control and acceptance, downregulation, upregulation, cognitive reappraisal. The students will be taught these skills via an animation series developed specifically for this program, shown in class, followed by 8x classroom activity bundles delivered over a two–week period (i.e., 9x lessons, two weeks each). Classroom exposure = 747mins total (10 mins p/day, 4 days p/week + 3min video p/fortnight). Teachers will receive training in the program prior to initiating the Module–based training, as well as all the materials they need to deliver the program, including a program guide and accompanying student and teacher workbooks. All trainings, program guides, and workbooks have been specifically developed for this program. The research team will be available to provide schools and teachers with additional support and guidance Teachers will be required to complete regular fidelity check surveys across the duration of intervention delivery to measure adherence to the intervention protocol.