Urban-Rural Differences in Depression Literacy Among High School Teachers in the Kingdom of Eswatini

Mental health literacy in secondary school teachers and interventions to improve it - a systematic review and narrative synthesis

BACKGROUND

Adolescent mental health problems have increased in prevalence. Teachers' Mental Health Literacy (MHL) may play an important role in public mental health prevention approaches. This systematic review and narrative synthesis aimed to identify what is known globally about the extent of secondary school teachers' MHL and the types and effectiveness of MHL interventions for secondary school teachers.

METHODS

PsycINFO, PubMed, ERIC, EBSCO-Psychological and behavioural sciences collection, Web of Science, and Google Scholar were searched to identify studies until 29/04/2024. Two independent reviewers screened the returns.

RESULTS

Twenty eligible studies were reviewed. Most intervention studies were from high-income countries and used a psycho-educative approach. Pre-intervention, teachers' levels of MHL were mixed across MHL domains. Post-intervention, increases in mental health knowledge and attitudes and decreases in mental health stigma were reported. Low use of standardised MHL measures, lack of randomised controlled trials, and lack of follow-up data affect evidence quality.

CONCLUSION

Interventions to improve secondary school teachers' MHL can be effective, at least in the short term. Evidence quality needs to be improved to inform recommendations on whether they should be part of a public mental health approach for adolescents.

A survey of suicide literacy in Japanese school teachers

School teachers are in a unique position to recognize suicide-related problems in their students and to appropriately support them; teachers may need high levels of suicide literacy. However, few studies have examined current levels of suicide literacy in teachers. This study aimed to investigate suicide literacy in school teachers. Teachers (n = 857) from 48 Japanese schools (primary and junior-/senior-high) answered a self-administered questionnaire assessing (a) knowledge about suicide, (b) intention to ask about students' suicidal thoughts/plans, and (c) attitudes towards talking to students with mental health problems. The average proportion of correct answers to the knowledge questions (10 items) was 55.2%. Over half of the teachers knew that suicide is a leading cause of death in adolescents (55.0%), and that asking about suicidality is needed (56.2%). Half of the teachers intended to ask students about their suicidal thoughts (50.2%) and fewer intended to ask about experiences of planning suicide (38.8%). Most of the teachers (90.4%) agreed with the idea that talking to students with mental health problems was a teacher's responsibility. Intention to ask about students' suicidal thoughts/plans were higher in teachers in their 20s (vs. 40s-60s) and working at junior-/senior-high schools (vs. primary schools). Suicide literacy in Japanese school teachers was observed to be limited. However, teachers felt responsibility for helping students with mental health problems. The development and implementation of education programs may help improve teachers' suicide literacy, which, in turn, could encourage effective helping behaviors of teachers for students struggling with suicidality.