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Evaluation studies showed an improvements in academic acheivment, emotional literacy, coping skills and classroom relationships

The Evidence Base For Zippy’s Friends and Apple’s Friends

Summaries of Evaluation Studies

IRELAND, 2010

PROGRAMME: Zippy’s Friends

TYPE OF TRIAL: Randomised control trial, validated scales

WHEN CONDUCTED: 2008-09

BY: Health Promotion Research Centre, National University of Ireland Galway

NUMBER OF CHILDREN: 730

MAJOR FINDINGS:

Improvements in:
• Emotional literacy
• Coping skills
• Classroom relationships

Reduction in:
• Hyperactivity

Reference: Clarke, A. M., Bunting, B. & Barry, M. M. (2014). Evaluating the implementation of a school-based emotional well-being programme: a cluster randomized controlled trial of Zippy’s Friends for children in disadvantaged primary schools. Health Education Research, 29(5), 786-798. doi: 10.1093/her/cyu047

NORWAY, 2012

PROGRAMME: Zippy’s Friends

TYPE OF TRIAL: Randomised control trial, validated scales

WHEN CONDUCTED: 2007-08

BY: Centre for Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Eastern and Southern Norway

NUMBER OF CHILDREN: 1,483

MAJOR FINDINGS:

Improvements in:
• Coping skills
• Classroom climate
• Academic skills (teacher report)

Reduction in:
• Bullying
• Impact of mental health problems

Reference: Solveig Holen, Trine Waaktaar, Arne Lervåg & Mette Ystgaard. The effectiveness of a universal school-based programme on coping and mental health: a randomised, controlled study of Zippy’s Friends. Educational Psychology: epub ahead of print. DOI:10.1080/01443410.2012.686152
Solveig Holen, Trine Waaktaar, Arne Lervåg & Mette Ystgaard. Implementing a Universal Stress Management Program for Young School Children: Are there Classroom Climate or Academic Effects? Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research. epub ahead of print. DOI:10.1080/00313831.2012.656320

THE NETHERLANDS, 2016

PROGRAMMES: Zippy’s Friends and Apple’s Friends TYPE OF TRIAL: Cluster randomised control trial, validated scales

WHEN CONDUCTED: 2012-14

BY: The Trimbos Institute

NUMBER OF CHILDREN: 1,177

MAJOR FINDINGS:

Improvement in:
• Emotion recognition
• Adaptive coping skills
• Motivation

Reduction in:
• Hyperactivity
• Aggressive behaviour

No significant findings from teacher reports

CZECH REPUBLIC, 2016

PROGRAMME: Zippy’s Friends

TYPE OF TRIAL: Randomised control trial, own questionnaire (not validated)

WHEN CONDUCTED: 2015-16

BY: Consortium of Prague academics

NUMBER OF CHILDREN: 807

MAJOR FINDINGS:

Increase in:
• Self-regulation
• Cooperation with peers
• Particular benefits for children with SEND

UNITED KINGDOM, 2018

PROGRAMME: Zippy’s Friends

TYPE OF TRIAL: Randomised controlled trial, validated scales.

WHEN CONDUCTED: 2016-17

BY: Queen’s University Belfast, Funded by the Education Endowment Foundation

NUMBER OF CHILDREN: 3904

MAJOR FINDINGS:

  • Improvement in self-regulated learning (teacher report)

  • No improvements in emotional self-regulation (child report).

  • However up to 1/3 of children were unable to complete the measure which hadn’t been validated for children this age. Low security of finding

  • Very positive process evaluation from teachers

Reference: educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/projects-and-evaluation/projects/zippys-friends/