The evaluation drew on a mixed methods approach and was informed by interdisciplinary perspectives of health and wellbeing. A variety of measures were selected to assess young people’s psychosocial health and also the impact of being a co-creator in a performance piece. A validated psychometric questionnaire (strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ)(Goodman, 1997) was used to capture psychosocial health and its changes over the programme for all three aspects of the project (school groups, care experienced group and the DAZL contemporary dance group). Interactive, participatory led focus groups (using vision boards and dartboard methods- see methodology) were conducted to explore attitudes and perceptions towards psychosocial health, mental health, self-esteem, resilience and physical activity. Participant observations were undertaken for the contemporary dance group during their sessions. All data was collected by the research team at Leeds Beckett University at differing time points during the nine-month programme: ● Focus groups: two timepoints - baseline and post-intervention (total n=79) Psychometric questionnaires (SDQ): three timepoints - baseline, mid-intervention and post-intervention (total n=137) ● Observations: five timepoints - first session, then after - one month, two-month, three month and six months (total of 5 hours). Psychosocial improvements for young people in the school group were identified as a result of the mental health and resilience project. Improvements in the sub-domains of emotional problems, peer problems and pro-social behaviour were noted. Overall improvements were also noted in physical activity levels for the school groups (mean improvement of 31 minutes per day of MVPA). However, these were self-reported, subjective measures, and caution should be made in generalising these findings.
ORCID: 
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)