Home⇛Journal of Education, Management, and Development Studies⇛vol. 3 no. 3 (2023)

Examining the Mental Health Literacy and Challenges to Supporting Students Among Regional Philippine Teacher Education Faculty

Julius R. Satparam

Discipline: counselling, psychotherapy and occupational therapy

 

Abstract:

modern society. The education sector, for example, has become a common focus of mental health studies as students and teachers are subject to frequent social interactions and academic pressure. To better understand how equipped students and teachers are in addressing mental health-related issues, looking at their mental health literacy is essential. In the Philippines, teachers’ mental health literacy remains an untapped area of research yet to be explored and understood. The current study aimed to a) examine the mental health literacy of faculty in a regional Philippine teacher education institution and b) identify the challenges met by the faculty in providing needed help to students with mental health-related issues. Forty-four faculty participated in the study and answered a mental health literacy scale. The average mental health literacy score of the overall sample was 114.45. This was found to be relatively higher than the scores of K-12 teachers but relatively lower than those of university students, healthcare professionals, athletic coaches and therapists, and community members. The challenges met by the respondents in providing needed help to students include lack of self-efficacy, resistance of students, conflicting values with the students, and lack of time. This study has provided evidence on the mental health literacy level of regional teacher education faculty and the challenges they encounter in supporting students; insights from it may inform mental health-related professional development initiatives. Implications and limitations of the findings are discussed.



References:

  1. Bongo, R. A., & Casta, J. S. (2017). Emotional and occupational stress among teachers in Tagum North District, Philippines. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2892494
  2. Cheng, H., Wang, C., McDermott, R. C., Kridel, M., & Rislin, J. L. (2018). Self‐stigma, mental health literacy, and attitudes toward seeking psychological help. Journal of Counseling & Development, 96(1), 64–74. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcad.12178
  3. Chew-Graham, C. A., Rogers, A., & Yassin, N. (2003). “I wouldn’t want it on my CV or their records”: Medical students’ experiences of help-seeking for mental health problems. Medical Education, 37(10), 873–880. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2923.2003.01627.x
  4. Communication for Governance & Accountability Program (CommGAP). (n.d.). Media effects. In Gov.UK. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/57a08bb9ed915d622c000e61/CommGAP_Brochure.pdf
  5. De Heus, P., & Diekstra, R. F. W. (1999). Do teachers burn out more easily? A comparison of teachers with other social professions on work stress and burnout symptoms. In R. Vandenberghe & A. M. Huberman (Eds.), Understanding Teacher Development (pp. 269–284). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511527784.019
  6. Demyan, A. L., & Anderson, T. (2012). Effects of a brief media intervention on expectations, attitudes, and intentions of mental health help seeking. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 59(2), 222–229. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0026541
  7. El-Amin, T., Anderson, B. L., Leider, J. P., Satorius, J., & Knudson, A. (2018). Enhancing mental health literacy in rural America: Growth of Mental Health First Aid program in rural communities in the United States from 2008–2016. Journal of Rural Mental Health, 42(1), 20–31. https://doi.org/10.1037/rmh0000088
  8. Graham, A., Phelps, R., Maddison, C., & Fitzgerald, R. (2011). Supporting children’s mental health in schools: Teacher views. Teachers and Teaching, 17(4), 479–496. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2011.580525
  9. Gray, C., Wilcox, G., & Nordstokke, D. (2017). Teacher mental health, school climate, inclusive education and student learning: A review. Canadian Psychology / Psychologie Canadienne, 58(3), 203–210. https://doi.org/10.1037/cap0000117
  10. Han, M., & Pong, H. (2015). Mental health help-seeking behaviors among Asian American community college students: The effect of stigma, cultural barriers, and acculturation. Journal of College Student Development, 56(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1353/csd.2015.0001
  11. Hochschild, A. R. (2012). The managed heart: Commercialization of human feeling (Updated ed.). University of California Press.
  12. Jerusalem, M., & Hessling, J. (2009). Mental health promotion in schools by strengthening self-efficacy. Health Education, 109, 329–341. https://doi.org/10.1108/09654280910970901
  13. Jorm, A. F. (2012). Mental health literacy: Empowering the community to take action for better mental health. American Psychologist, 67(3), 231–243. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0025957
  14. Jorm, A. F., Blewitt, K. A., Griffiths, K. M., Kitchener, B. A., & Parslow, R. A. (2005). Mental health first aid responses of the public: Results from an Australian national survey. BMC Psychiatry, 5(1), 9. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-244X-5-9
  15. Jorm, A. F., Korten, A. E., Jacomb, P. A., Christensen, H., Rodgers, B., & Pollitt, P. (1997). “Mental health literacy”: A survey of the public’s ability to recognise mental disorders and their beliefs about the effectiveness of treatment. Medical Journal of Australia, 166(4), 182–186. https://doi.org/10.5694/j.1326-5377.1997.tb140071.x
  16. Kenney, C. (2019). An examination of the psychometric properties of the mental health literacy scale with K-12 educators. Doctor of Education (EdD). https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/edd/129
  17. Kessler, R. C., Berglund, P., Demler, O., Jin, R., Merikangas, K. R., & Walters, E. E. (2005). Lifetime prevalence and age-of-onset distributions of DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Archives of General Psychiatry, 62(6), 593. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.62.6.593
  18. Kutcher, S., Gilberds, H., Morgan, C., Greene, R., Hamwaka, K., & Perkins, K. (2015). Improving Malawian teachers’ mental health knowledge and attitudes: An integrated school mental health literacy approach. Global Mental Health, 2, e1. https://doi.org/10.1017/gmh.2014.8
  19. Lawlor, E., Breslin, J. G., Renwick, L., Foley, S., Mulkerrin, U., Kinsella, A., Turner, N., & O’Callaghan, E. (2008). Mental health literacy among Internet users. Early Intervention in Psychiatry, 2(4), 247–255. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-7893.2008.00085.x
  20. Liao, Y., Ameyaw, M. A., Liang, C., Li, W., Ji, Y., & An, Z. (2023). Effects of evidence-based intervention on teachers’ mental health literacy: Systematic review and a meta-analysis. Sustainability, 15(11), 8981. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15118981
  21. Loos, A. T. (2017). The role of librarians in promoting digital wellness: A case study. Public Services Quarterly, 13(1), 32–40. https://doi.org/10.1080/15228959.2016.1268943
  22. Lopez, S. J., Pedrotti, J. T., & Snyder, C. R. (2019). Positive psychology: The scientific and practical explorations of human strengths (Fourth edition). SAGE.
  23. Mazzer, K. R., & Rickwood, D. J. (2015). Teachers’ role breadth and perceived efficacy in supporting student mental health. Advances in School Mental Health Promotion, 8(1), 29–41. https://doi.org/10.1080/1754730X.2014.978119
  24. McLean, L., Abry, T., Taylor, M., Jimenez, M., & Granger, K. (2017). Teachers’ mental health and perceptions of school climate across the transition from training to teaching. Teaching and Teacher Education, 65, 230–240. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2017.03.018
  25. Ní Chorcora, E., & Swords, L. (2022). Mental health literacy and help-giving responses of Irish primary school teachers. Irish Educational Studies, 41(4), 735–751. https://doi.org/10.1080/03323315.2021.1899029
  26. O’Connor, M., & Casey, L. (2015). The Mental Health Literacy Scale (MHLS): A new scale-based measure of mental health literacy. Psychiatry Research, 229(1–2), 511–516. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2015.05.064
  27. Publico, M. R. (2020). Assessing the mental health literacy of secondary school educators. International Journal of Childhood Education, 1(1), 24–31. https://doi.org/10.33422/ijce.v1i1.11
  28. Reavley, N. J., McCann, T. V., & Jorm, A. F. (2012). Mental health literacy in higher education students. Early Intervention in Psychiatry, 6(1), 45–52. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-7893.2011.00314.x
  29. Reinke, W. M., Stormont, M., Herman, K. C., Puri, R., & Goel, N. (2011). Supporting children’s mental health in schools: Teacher perceptions of needs, roles, and barriers. School Psychology Quarterly, 26(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022714
  30. Roeser, R. W., Eccles, J. S., & Freedman-Doan, C. (1999). Academic functioning and mental health in adolescence: Patterns, progressions, and routes from childhood. Journal of Adolescent Research, 14(2), 135–174. https://doi.org/10.1177/0743558499142002
  31. Rossetto, A., Jorm, A. F., & Reavley, N. J. (2014). Examining predictors of help giving toward people with a mental illness: Results from a national survey of Australian adults. SAGE Open, 4(2), 215824401453750. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244014537502
  32. Rothì, D., Leavey, G., & Best, R. (2008). On the front-line: Teachers as active observers of pupils’ mental health. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24, 1217–1231. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2007.09.011
  33. Stiffman, A. R., Pescosolido, B., & Cabassa, L. J. (2004). Building a model to understand youth service access: The Gateway Provider Model. Mental Health Services Research, 6(4), 189–198. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:MHSR.0000044745.09952.33
  34. Sullivan, P., Murphy, J., & Blacker, M. (2019). The level of mental health literacy among athletic staff in intercollegiate sport. Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology, 13(3), 440–450. https://doi.org/10.1123/jcsp.2018-0052
  35. World Health Organization. (2001). The World Health Report 2001: Mental disorders affect one in four people. https://www.who.int/news/item/28-09-2001-the-world-health-report-2001-mental-disorders-affect-one-in-four-people
  36. Van Droogenbroeck, F., & Spruyt, B. (2015). Do teachers have worse mental health? Review of the existing comparative research and results from the Belgian Health Interview Survey. Teaching and Teacher Education, 51, 88–100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2015.06.006
  37. White, M., & Casey, L. (2017). Helping older adults to help themselves: The role of mental health literacy in family members. Aging & Mental Health, 21(11), 1129–1137. https://doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2016.1206513
  38. World Health Organization. (2018). Mental health atlas 2017. World Health Organization. https://iris.who.int/handle/10665/272735
  39. World Health Organization. (2021). Prevention and management of mental health conditions in the Philippines: The case for investment. https://www.undp.org/philippines/publications/prevention-and-management-mental-health-conditions-philippines-case-investment
  40. Yamaguchi, S., Foo, J. C., Nishida, A., Ogawa, S., Togo, F., & Sasaki, T. (2020). Mental health literacy programs for school teachers: A systematic review and narrative synthesis. Early Intervention in Psychiatry, 14(1), 14–25. https://doi.org/10.1111/eip.12793

Tools


Copyright © 2024  KITE Digital Educational Solutions |  Exclusively distributed by CE-Logic