Youth Mental Health Awareness Programmes and Self-Esteem Development in Nigerian Secondary Schools: An Intervention Study

Youth in Nigerian secondary schools face significant mental health challenges, which can affect their self-esteem and overall well-being. A quasi-experimental study design was employed, with a pre-test/post-test analysis to assess changes in self-esteem scores before and after participating in the intervention programme. The post-intervention self-esteem scores showed an average increase of 15% compared to baseline levels, indicating that the programmes were effective in enhancing self-worth among participants. Youth mental health awareness programmes significantly improved self-esteem in Nigerian secondary school students, suggesting their role in addressing this critical issue. Schools and policymakers should integrate these evidence-based interventions into existing curricula to support the mental health of young people. Self-Esteem, Mental Health, Youth Programmes, Secondary Schools, Nigeria Treatment effect was estimated with $\text{logit}(p_i)=\beta_0+\beta^\top X_i$, and uncertainty reported using confidence-interval based inference.