Students asked in a survey to describe how they felt in school most frequently used negative words like fatigue, stress, and boredom. Behavioral challenges and staff shortages might incentivize teachers to suggest that parents have their children evaluated for treatment at the first sign of conflict, even when behavior is in line with normal developmental milestones. In one report, a student interviewed after the lesson “broke down in tears when discussing his living situation.” Attention to wellness has bled directly into academic coursework, even in fundamental areas like mathematics. While character development and civic engagement have always been present in American public education, the current progressive shift has been toward an individual-oriented therapeutic education, borrowing ideas from pop psychology.

1. Study Design

• Universal supports aim to strengthen wellbeing and social–emotional competencies across the entire student population.
• According to the NASP, a large percentage, about 70%-80%, of people have experienced bullying in their school years in which the student could have been the bully, victim, or even the bystander.
• Mental health policy should renew focus on the goal of reducing rates of mental disorder and reducing impairment from symptoms by way of providing services to youth with current need of mental health intervention.
• ” He believes students and staff should all be trained in mental health awareness and know what referrals they can make if someone exhibits signs of needing help.
• Innumerable exams during the educational process starting from primary schools may lead to increased anxiety and depression levels 97, 98, particularly among senior students preparing for college entrance examinations .

However, children are now spending a large amount of time at school where they learn, play and socialize. In 2019, the World Health Organization has pointed out that childhood and adolescence are critical periods for the acquisition of socio-emotional capabilities and for prevention of mental health problems . Globally about 10–20% of children and adolescents experience mental health problems 1, 2, and mental health problems in early life may have the potential for long-term adverse consequences 3, 4.

The Role of Schools in Promoting Mental Health Awareness

In fact, when done right, it can be a powerful force for positive mental health. Behind every report card and classroom achievement lies a hidden emotional landscape that shapes our children’s well-being far more than Battle over school mental health and SEL letter grades ever could. Developing a set of indicators for specific health topics, such as mental health promotion, could be helpful for national governments, as this would drive accountability through monitoring and evaluation. While the global standards for Health-promoting Schools include a set of indicators, these do not focus on specific health topics such as mental health (15). Notwithstanding inconsistent terminology between guidelines and manuals, and a variety of ways that comprehensiveness could be conceptualized, we found that the scope of these guidelines and manuals was predominantly oriented toward universal interventions using the approach of Health-promoting Schools. Most health-related policy documents should be stored in this platform, regardless of the UN agency that produces them, but our inclusion of two additional search approaches was with the intention of mitigating this potential bias.

For example, several manuals included training modules to help deliver transferrable knowledge (concepts, principles, and strategies about program implementation) and equip learners with the skills and tools to apply this (13, 31, 35, 42). Most manuals suggested that structured approaches were needed to support dissemination, such as assessment tools and the inclusion of practical material for training. Another common feature was that these guidelines and manuals explicitly require the involvement of multiple stakeholders including school administrators, government organizations, community, and non-government organizations (NGOs). In general, we found much in common across these UN global policy documents (see Figure 2 for a summary of key points). As might be expected, several of these policy documents show evidence of progression over time.

However, due to increasing academic pressure, children have to spend a large amount of time on academic studies, and inevitably displace time on sleep, leisure, exercises/sports, and extracurricular activities . Participation in music, student council, and other clubs/organizations may also provide students with frequent connections with peers, and opportunities to build relationships with others that share similar interests . Our findings also suggested that participation in non-academic activities was an important component of positive youth development. Another study also highlighted the benefits of after-school clubs, demonstrating an improvement in socio-emotional competencies and emotional status, and sustained effects at 12-month follow-up .

Explore how school-based mental health policies support students with anxiety, depression, ADHD, trauma, and more. A law passed in 2021 making funding available for school-based mental health services, and Senate leaders this year have pledged to put together a legislative package addressing mental health, including improving kids’ access to care. The report grades states based on how well they’ve developed eight different kinds of programs and services to improve school mental health.