Does Creative Bibliotherapy delivered in schools improve mental health-related outcomes for 5–16 year olds? A systematic review

There are promising indications that Creative Bibliotherapy in schools can improve mental health and its contributors but, to date, no strong evidence. Much of the literature pre-dates widespread adoption of reporting guidelines, and few designs were robustly defended against bias. Whilst interventions such as Creative Bibliotherapy fit uneasily within experimental evaluation paradigms, many interventions identified in this review could be evaluated with stronger trial designs to identify both positive and negative effects, and (more importantly) the contexts and conditions under which they are likely to improve children's mental health.