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/