Social And Behaviour Change Interventions For Mental Health Literacy, Stigma Reduction, And Help-Seeking Among Young People In Africa: A Systematic Review Protocol

Background: Mental health literacy, stigma, and delayed help-seeking remain major barriers to improving youth mental health across Africa. Social and Behaviour Change (SBC) interventions have increasingly been implemented to address these challenges; however, evidence regarding their effectiveness, implementation, and contextual influences has not been comprehensively synthesised across African settings. Objective: This protocol describes a mixed-methods systematic review that will synthesise quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods evidence on Social and Behaviour Change interventions aimed at improving mental health literacy, reducing stigma, and promoting help-seeking among young people in Africa. Methods: The review will follow the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocols (PRISMA-P), PRISMA 2020, PRISMA-S, and the Joanna Briggs Institute Manual for Evidence Synthesis. Searches will be conducted in PubMed/MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Scopus, Web of Science Core Collection, African Journals Online (AJOL), and Google Scholar. Eligible studies will be identified using predefined PICOS criteria, screened using Rayyan, appraised using Joanna Briggs Institute critical appraisal tools, and synthesised through an implementation-focused mixed-methods approach. The review is guided by the African Youth Mental Health Social and Behaviour Change (AYMH-SBC) Pathway, a review-specific conceptual framework developed to organise evidence extraction, synthesis, and interpretation. Discussion: This review will provide the first comprehensive synthesis of Social and Behaviour Change interventions targeting mental health literacy, stigma reduction, and help-seeking among young people in Africa. Findings are expected to inform policy, programme design, implementation strategies, and future research while introducing the AYMH-SBC Pathway as a structured framework for understanding and synthesising behavioural and implementation evidence within African youth mental health. Systematic Review Registration: Open Science Framework. doi.org