Improving School Climate and Children's Well-being Through the Life Skills "Feel Good" Intervention in French Schools: A Controlled Before-and-After Study

Life skills are major determinants of health that can be influenced through health promotion initiatives. Numerous educational interventions exist to foster the development of life skills. However, few interventions have been validated in France. The Feel Good program has been implemented for six years by CRIPS Île-de-France, particularly to address these public health challenges related to promoting children's health. Its goal is to improve life skills and the school climate among children in the 4th and 5th grades (CM1 and CM2). A playful, interactive, and recurring approach to developing PSS at school is expected to effectively promote a positive school climate and enhance children's well-being at school. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a school-based life skills development program in improving school climate and children's well-being, through a before-after, here-elsewhere (control group) design. This action-research project adopts an interdisciplinary approach and will use mixed methods to evaluate the intervention. Three components are planned: 1) the study of implementation, 2) the effectiveness evaluation (main objective), and 3) the development of recommendations for the development and evaluation of such interventions. A theoretical model of change has been developed for the effectiveness study, aligned with process data. The project has received ethical and regulatory approvals (UPC and Inserm), and a pilot study has already been conducted. The expected outcomes include scientific knowledge on the validity of health promotion programs based on the development of life skills for children. The project also aims to develop research methodologies for evaluating health promotion interventions (evidence-based data) and to establish recommendations (replicability), as well as for other themes or populations (transferability).

Inclusion Criteria: * Children enrolled in grades 4 or 5 during the 2025-2026 school year who will participate in the Feel Good intervention (for pre- and post-program implementation) * Children who are able to read and answer the questions on the questionnaire * French-speaking children. Exclusion Criteria: * Children not enrolled in grades 4 or 5 during the 2025-2026 school year who will participate in the Feel Good intervention (for pre- and post-program assessments) * Children who are not able to read and answer the questions on the questionnaire * Non French-speaking children.