At Your Fingertips: Using Texts Focused on 'The Greatest 8' to Promote Children's Mental Health and Skill Development

Full Description: Over the last century, the MCH field has made enormous strides in changing the trajectories of young children through immunizations, well child visits, early identification of autism, lead abatement, and so much more. However, for too long, the mental health needs of young children have been ignored, until there is a significant problem. Too little attention has been given to upstream solutions and primary prevention. The recent declaration by the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Association of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, and the Children’s Hospital Association of a “National State of Emergency in Children’s Mental Health,” points to our nation's burgeoning children's mental health needs. Changing societal norms to include not only a focus on children’s physical development, but also social emotional development and mental well-being is key to continued improvement of child health outcomes. The digital age we live in also offers us opportunities to engage and support busy parents/caregivers.
The Greatest 8™ is designed to highlight concrete ways, beginning at birth, that parents/caregivers can support young children’s skill development related to mental health and resilience. This novel and promising approach represents a major paradigm shift in how we promote children’s healthy development. The idea for The Greatest 8 was motivated by a 1986 study from the University of the West Indies that made the case that if we want to improve children’s opportunities for success, one of the most powerful potential levers for change is not the children themselves, but rather the attitudes, beliefs and behaviors of the adults who surround them. The Greatest 8 is fundamentally built on this premise as well as empirical studies showing links between specific social-emotional skills and long-term mental wellness.
The Greatest 8's foundational mental health skills are:
1. Communic8: Communication Skills
2. Contempl8: Identifying & Understanding Feelings
3. Regul8: Balancing Emotions
4. Elev8: Self-Perceived Competence
5. Collabor8: Problem-Solving
6. Accomod8: Coping & Resilience
7. Negoti8: Conflict Management & Resolution
8. Celebr8: Diversity Awareness & Respect
The Greatest 8 offers a free set of user friendly, age-appropriate resources at www.thegreatest8.org, including skill descriptions, parent blogs, podcasts, etc. We also developed a variety of popular workshops for parents, early childhood, and primary care providers regarding The Greatest 8. To sustain caregiver engagement with The Greatest 8, in early 2021, we launched a Text Messaging Service (TMS) to provide weekly tips/suggestions for how to teach The Greatest 8 skills to children. Initial TMS subscriber reactions reveal that caregivers enjoy receiving the weekly reminders. Few have unsubscribed and 75% reported they were likely to try the tips/suggestions provided. Though further efficacy study is needed, The Greatest 8 TMS shows promise for the future in MCH.

Abbreviated Description: With children in psychiatric crises flooding Emergency Depts. nationwide post COVID, the need for upstream mental health prevention efforts could not be greater. The Greatest 8 was created to promote children’s mental health. This novel, research-informed initiative includes a Text Messaging Service (TMS), modeled after the successful “Text4Baby” (designed to promote MCH during pregnancy). TMS subscribers receive weekly tips/suggestions (via 140 character texts on phones/other devices) to parents of children (ages 0-8 years old). Initial subscribers enjoy these texts & 75% report they are likely to try the tips/suggestions provided. Though further study is needed, The Greatest 8 is a promising strategy for instilling 8 key mental health skills in children that could last a lifetime.