Supporting emotional well-being in schools in the context of austerity: An ecologically informed humanistic perspective

"We want it to be a culture": children and young people's perceptions of what underpins and undermines education-based wellbeing provision

BACKGROUND

Provision that aims to promote the social, emotional, and mental wellbeing of children and young people (including their mental health) is increasingly implemented in education settings. As researchers, policymakers, and practitioners explore the complexities of promotion and prevention provision in practice, it is critical that we include and amplify children and young people's perspectives. In the current study, we explore children and young people's perceptions of the values, conditions, and foundations that underpin effective social, emotional, and mental wellbeing provision.

METHODS

We engaged in remote focus groups with 49 children and young people aged 6-17 years across diverse settings and backgrounds, using a storybook in which participants constructed wellbeing provision for a fictional setting.

ANALYSIS

Using reflexive thematic analysis, we constructed six main themes presenting participants' perceptions: (1) recognising and facilitating the setting as a caring social community; (2) enabling wellbeing to be a central setting priority; (3) facilitating strong relationships with staff who understand and care about wellbeing; (4) engaging children and young people as active partners; (5) adapting to collective and individual needs; and (6) being discreet and sensitive to vulnerability.

CONCLUSIONS

Our analysis presents a vision from children and young people of an integrated systems approach to wellbeing provision, with a relational, participatory culture in which wellbeing and student needs are prioritised. However, our participants identified a range of tensions that risk undermining efforts to promote wellbeing. Achieving children and young people's vision for an integrated culture of wellbeing will require critical reflection and change to address the current challenges faced by education settings, systems, and staff.

Children's Lived Experiences of Wellbeing at School in England: a Phenomenological Inquiry

This phenomenological inquiry investigated children's wellbeing experiences at school, including their hedonic (feeling good) and eudaimonic (doing good) accounts, a distinction often overlooked. Further, while phenomenological inquiries of children's mental ill-health exist, wellbeing, a fundamental part of mental health, is neglected. This is at odds with positive psychology which favours strengths-based approaches to studying human development. Phenomenology provides rich detail, facilitating deeper understanding of why and how certain factors affect wellbeing, as described by children themselves. A sample of 15 children (aged 9-11), attending one English primary school broadly representative of the national socio-demographic, engaged in interviews. Children's experiences of 'feeling good' at school were characterised by: an interdependence on peers' emotional states (described as 'a domino effect'), a need to feel cared for by, and trust, adults, and desire for autonomy over their time. Children attributed mistrust in adults to adults disregarding seemingly incidental events which felt significant to children. Children experienced 'doing well' as equating to academic attainment, conveying a fixation with test scores, using language of 'correctness' and efficiency. Shame pervaded when 'correctness' was not achieved, with children describing being ridiculed for poor test scores. Recommendations for schools to support children's hedonia include prioritising wellbeing curricula and emotional literacy, greater staff reflexivity, and prioritisation of pupil voice. To foster children's eudaimonia, recommendations include the need for teachers to provide formative, personalised feedback for pupils focused on the learning process, and the need for Government to embrace a range of ways pupils can feel successful beyond academic attainment.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12187-023-10016-2.

A Multilevel Person-Centered Examination of Teachers' Workplace Experiences: Replication and Extension With Links to Instructional Support and Achievement

In a replication and extension of an earlier study, we relied on person-centered analyses to identify teacher (Level 1) and school (Level 2) profiles based on teachers' experiences of job demands (barriers to professional development, disruptive student behavior), job resources (teacher collaboration, input in decision-making), and personal resources (self-efficacy). We examined data from 5,439 teachers working in 364 schools in Australia and 2,216 teachers working in 149 schools in England. Latent profile analysis revealed six teacher profiles: Low-Demand-Flourisher (11%), Mixed-Demand-Flourisher (17%), Job-Resourced-Average (11%), Balanced-Average (14%), Mixed-Resourced-Struggler (11%), and Low-Resourced-Struggler (36%). Two school profiles were identified: an Unsupportive school profile (43%) and a Supportive school profile (57%). Several significant relations between these profiles and teacher/school characteristics and work-related outcomes were also identified at both levels. Although our results generally replicated prior findings, some differences were also observed, possibly as a results of recent changes in policies regarding in teacher support and accountability. Next, we extended prior work using a subsample of the Australian teachers for whom we had matching student data. This second set of results revealed that schools with a greater proportion of low-SES students were more likely to present an Unsupportive school profile. Moreover, the Supportive school profile was associated with higher levels of student-reported instructional support and school-average achievement in reading, mathematics, and science.

A Theory of Change for Web-Based Therapy and Support Services for Children and Young People: Collaborative Qualitative Exploration

BACKGROUND

Web-based counseling and support has become increasingly commonplace for children and young people (CYP). Currently, there is limited research that focuses on the mechanisms of change within complex telepsychology platforms, a factor that makes designing and implementing outcome measures challenging.

OBJECTIVE

This project aims to articulate a theory of change (ToC) for Kooth, a web-based therapy and support platform for CYP.

METHODS

A collaborative qualitative research design involving professional staff, academic partners, and young people was used to develop the ToC. The following three major reflective phases were engaged: a scoping workshop involving professional staff and academic partners, a series of explorative projects were completed to inform the development of the ToC, and the draft ToC was reviewed for coherence by key stakeholders (young people, online professionals, and service managers).

RESULTS

A collaboratively developed ToC was presented. This was divided into the conditions that lead to individuals wanting to access web-based therapy and support (eg, individuals wanting support there and then or quickly), the mode of service delivery (eg, skilled and experienced professionals able to build empathetic relationships with CYP), and the observed and reported changes that occur as a consequence of using the service (eg, individuals being better able to manage current and future situations).

CONCLUSIONS

Developing the ToC helps to shed light on how web-based therapy and support services aid the mental health and well-being of CYP. Furthermore, it helps to understand the development of positive virtual ecosystems and can be used to devise evaluative tools for CYP telepsychology providers.

Educators' perceived mental health literacy and capacity to support students' mental health: associations with school-level characteristics and provision in England

Conceptual frameworks for school-based, preventive interventions recognise that educators’ capacity is, in part, dependent on school-level characteristics. This study aimed to (i) examine the factor structure and internal consistency of the Mental Health Literacy and Capacity Survey for Educators (MHLCSE); (ii) assess responses in relation to supporting students’ mental health; (iii) describe schools’ mental health provision in terms of designated roles, training offered, and perceived barriers; (iv) investigate variance in MHLCSE outcomes explained by schools; and, (v) explore school-level predictors of educators’ perceived MHL and capacity after controlling for individual-level characteristics. A multi-level, cross-sectional design involving 710 educators across 248 schools in England was used, and secondary analyses of baseline data collected as part of the Education for Wellbeing Programme were conducted. Mental health provision data was available for 206 schools, of which 95% offered training to some staff, and 71% had a designated mental health lead. Secondary schools offered significantly more training than primary schools. Significant barriers included lack of capacity in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and within school, and communication challenges between agencies. The amount of training offered by schools significantly predicted educators’ awareness and knowledge of mental health issues, treatments and services, legislation and processes for supporting students’ mental health and comfort providing active support, with increased training predicting higher scores. However, little variance was explained by schools (1.7–12.1%) and school-level variables (0.7–1.2%). Results are discussed in relation to current mental health and education policy in England.

Children and young people's experiences of completing mental health and wellbeing measures for research: learning from two school-based pilot projects

BACKGROUND

In recent years there has been growing interest in child and adolescent mental health and wellbeing, alongside increasing emphasis on schools as a crucial site for research and intervention. This has coincided with an increased use of self-report mental health and wellbeing measures in research with this population, including in school-based research projects. We set out to explore the way that children and young people perceive and experience completing mental health and wellbeing measures, with a specific focus on completion in a school context, in order to inform future measure and research design.

METHODS

We conducted semi-structured interviews and focus groups with 133 participants aged 8-16 years following their completion of mental health and wellbeing measures as part of school-based research programmes, using thematic analysis to identify patterns of experience.

FINDINGS

We identified six themes: Reflecting on emotions during completion; the importance of anonymity; understanding what is going to happen; ease of responding to items; level of demand; and interacting with the measure format.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings offer greater insight into children and young people's perceptions and experiences in reporting on their mental health and wellbeing. Such understanding can be used to support more ethical and robust data collection procedures in child and adolescent mental health research, both for data quality and ethical purposes. We offer several practical recommendations for researchers, including facilitating this in a school context.

Supporting emotional well-being in schools in the context of austerity: An ecologically informed humanistic perspective

Background

Schools are commonly asked to take on roles that support the emotional well‐being of students. These practices are in line with humanistic education theory and can be difficult to fulfil by schools. Broader ecological pressures, such as periods of austerity, are likely to add to the difficulty in meeting students’ needs.

Aims

To explore whether professionals in schools believe that their work supporting pupils’ emotional well‐being has changed as a consequence of the current period of austerity.

Sample

This project reports the views of staff from three secondary schools in the North West of England. A purposive sample of 29 individuals, including members of the senior leadership team and newly qualified teachers, were involved.

Methods

All participants were interviewed about their perceptions of the impact of a sustained period of austerity upon their work. The transcripts of these interviews were analysed using thematic analysis.

Findings

Educational professionals associated wider socio‐political factors with a perceived increase in the need for emotional support of pupils. They reported taking on new roles and responsibilities to accommodate this and noted they are doing so with fewer resources and limited governmental support.

Conclusions

This paper concludes that considering humanistic education theory alongside ecological theory helps to conceptualize how socio‐political factors can impact upon the emotional well‐being in schools. An ecologically informed humanistic framework is depicted based upon the findings of this project as a means of understanding how these two theories complement one another and interact.