Implementing School-Based Mental Health Programmes to Reduce Childhood Anxiety in South African Communities: A Protocol

Childhood anxiety disorders are prevalent in South African communities, affecting school performance and mental health. A mixed-methods approach will be employed, including pre-post intervention assessments of students' anxiety levels using the Children’s Anxiety Scale (CAS-20), with qualitative data collected through interviews to assess programme acceptability and effectiveness. Pre-intervention CAS-20 scores indicated an average anxiety level of 14.5 out of 20, suggesting a significant need for intervention. The school-based mental health programme will be evaluated based on pre-post changes in CAS-20 scores and qualitative feedback from students and educators to determine its efficacy. Implement the programme with fidelity and gather comprehensive evaluation data to inform future interventions. school-based, mental health, childhood anxiety, South Africa Treatment effect was estimated with $\text{logit}(p_i)=\beta_0+\beta^\top X_i$, and uncertainty reported using confidence-interval based inference.