In recent years, the mental health crisis among adolescents has garnered increasing global attention, with depressive symptoms surging alarmingly among high school students. This concerning trend is especially pronounced in countries like Japan, where academic stress, social identity challenges, and uncertain future prospects converge to create a perfect storm for psychological distress. Researchers at Hiroshima University have now pioneered an innovative intervention aimed at combating the rise of depressive symptoms among older high school students, demonstrating a promising model for tackling adolescent mental health in educational settings.
Depression during adolescence is not merely an ephemeral phase but has profound implications that ripple across an individual’s academic performance, social integration, and long-term economic prospects. In Japan, a significant proportion of high school students exhibit depressive symptoms that surpass clinically relevant thresholds, signaling urgent need for effective preventive measures. These symptoms elevate the risk of progression to major depressive disorders, which can impair cognitive function, motivation, and overall quality of life. Educational institutions, therefore, represent a critical frontier for intervention, given their potential to reach large student populations during formative developmental periods.
Historically, many school-based programs designed to combat adolescent depression have concentrated primarily on younger students, often overlooking the distinct experiences and challenges faced by older adolescents. Additionally, existing interventions typically suffer from limited longevity and limited real-world applicability; skills taught may not transfer effectively beyond isolated program settings to the dynamic, everyday environments that students inhabit. Such limitations reduce the long-term efficacy of these programs, particularly for students in part-time high school courses who may experience differing social and academic pressures compared to their full-time counterparts.
Addressing these gaps, Professor Akiko Ogata’s team at Hiroshima University developed the Mastery of Interpersonal Relationships and Emotional Skills (MIRaES) program, an evidence-based, year-long intervention tailored specifically for high school students enrolled in part-time courses. Unlike conventional short-term interventions, MIRaES spans an entire academic year, incorporating twelve comprehensive sessions that emphasize critical psychological competencies including assertiveness, cognitive restructuring, anger management, and advanced problem-solving techniques. This extended timeframe facilitates deeper skill acquisition and adaptation, thus enhancing the potential for meaningful behavioral change.
A distinguishing feature of the MIRaES program lies in its delivery methodology, which involves a collaborative approach uniting graduate clinical psychology students with high school educators. This partnership fosters an integrative framework where psychological principles are contextualized within the student’s academic environment, enabling reinforcement of skills during daily school activities. Such an approach overcomes common barriers to skill generalization by providing continuous, environment-specific support rather than isolating intervention efforts to sporadic workshops or sessions.
To evaluate MIRaES’ effectiveness, an experimental study was conducted involving 120 Japanese high school students undertaking part-time courses. Researchers employed a rigorous mixed-methods design, administering quantitative assessments of depressive symptoms, social skills, and emotional regulation at three intervals throughout the year-long intervention. Complementary qualitative data were gathered via open-ended student feedback, providing rich insight into the subjective experience and application of the program’s core concepts. Due to curricular constraints, the study did not feature a traditional randomized control group; instead, participants were dichotomized based on session attendance frequency, allowing comparison between high-attendance and low-attendance cohorts.
The findings were compelling and shed light on how sustained engagement with the MIRaES program can effectively buffer against depressive trajectories. Students who attended eleven or more sessions retained stable depressive symptom scores over the course of the school year, whereas those with lower attendance displayed a marked increase in symptom severity. This divergence underscores the critical importance of consistent involvement in therapeutic or preventive frameworks to yield tangible mental health benefits. Encouragingly, the stability of depressive symptoms in high-attendance students suggests successful prevention of symptom exacerbation rather than mere temporary symptom fluctuation.
Qualitative analyses further illuminated the mechanisms underlying these outcomes. Frequent attendees articulated how they actively applied learned emotional regulation techniques in daily contexts, frequently referencing enhanced ‘control’ and ‘usefulness’ of these skills amidst real-life challenges. The repetitive exposure to assertiveness training and cognitive reframing appeared to empower students to navigate interpersonal conflicts and stressors with greater resilience. Such self-reported integration implies that the MIRaES curriculum transcended theoretical instruction, embedding itself within participants’ practical repertoires and enabling durable psychological resource development.
This study’s implications extend broadly across educational domains, suggesting that prevention programs with extended duration and ecological validity can overcome long-standing challenges in school-based mental health promotion. The practicality of MIRaES is noteworthy: it aligns with the temporal and structural constraints of school curricula, while harnessing existing human capital in the form of clinical psychology trainees and educators. By embedding mental health prevention within the fabric of schooling, this model avoids the pitfalls of isolated, externally imposed programs that often fail to resonate or maintain impact over time.
Moreover, MIRaES addresses a demographic frequently marginalized in mental health research — older adolescents attending part-time courses — whose unique schedules and responsibilities render many standard interventions less applicable. The tailored focus on this group reflects a nuanced understanding of how varying educational trajectories intersect with psychological vulnerability, highlighting the necessity of customizing mental health approaches to reflect student heterogeneity.
The research also underscores the value of mixed-methods assessment in understanding complex psychosocial interventions. Quantitative symptom tracking paired with qualitative experiential feedback provides a multidimensional perspective on program success, revealing not just statistical effects but the lived realities and perceived benefits from the student viewpoint. Such comprehensive evaluation informs future refinement and scalability of similar programs in diverse contexts.
Looking ahead, the MIRaES framework offers a scalable template adaptable to other countries and educational systems confronting analogous adolescent mental health challenges. The program’s emphasis on skill generalization, ecological embedding, and long-term engagement provides a robust foundation upon which to build culturally sensitive and resource-efficient prevention strategies. As adolescent mental health continues to gain global prominence, interventions such as MIRaES set an important precedent for combining scientific rigor with practical implementation.
In an era marked by rising recognition of adolescent mental health’s centrality to societal well-being, the MIRaES program exemplifies how thoughtful integration of clinical expertise within educational environments can mitigate depressive symptom progression. The collaborative model, sustained intervention duration, and focus on skill generalization offer a promising blueprint for educators, mental health professionals, and policymakers seeking effective solutions to an urgent and complex challenge.
Dr. Kohei Kambara, who led the implementation of this project at Doshisha University, emphasizes the universal relevance of the findings: “This highly feasible universal prevention approach for school settings may contribute significantly to improving mental health among high school students in grades 10 to 12, a population often overlooked in current mental health promotion efforts.” This affirmation of MIRaES’ potential impact highlights the broader imperative to embed sustainable mental health initiatives within the educational landscape.
Ultimately, this pioneering research advances the field by demonstrating that targeted, well-structured, and context-responsive interventions can buffer the trajectory of depression in vulnerable adolescent populations. As mental health professionals wrestle with the complexities of prevention and early intervention, the year-long MIRaES program stands as a compelling exemplar of evidence-based practice with enduring promise.
Subject of Research: People
Article Title: Universal school-based prevention program for decreasing the depressive symptoms of high school students on a part-time course: Developing the MIRaES program in Japan
News Publication Date: 1-Jul-2025
Web References:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2025.108343
Image Credits: userpilot1 from Openverse
Keywords: Mental health, High school students
