An ecological model of mental health promotion for school communities: adolescent views about mental health promotion in secondary schools in the UK

Abstract

This research gained the views of adolescents about mental health promotion in secondary schools in England, the UK. A flexible design, using self-contained focus group methodology explored views of 26 adolescents. A funnel approach structured five focus groups, each consisting of between three and eight adolescents. Semi-structured questions were asked in an informal, child-centred environment (Morgan, Gibbs, Maxwell, & Britten, 2002, Hearing children's voices: Methodological issues in conducting focus groups with children aged 7–11 years’, Qualitative Research,2, 5–20). A constructivist grounded theory analysis enabled categories and theory to emerge. Theoretical concepts were mapped onto an ecosystems model (Bronfenbrenner, 1979, The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press) resulting in an ecological framework for mental health promotion in school communities working at three levels: Macro, Meso and Micro. The research concludes that for schools to promote mental health, society and school communities need to provide active listening cultures and an inclusive ethos to embrace mental health promotion. A need arises for adults to have knowledge and understanding of child and adolescent development, identity and the importance of relationships.

Keywords::

• Adolescent views
• mental health promotion
• school communities

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my gratitude to the young people that participated in this research. I would like to thank Dr Mark Fox and Dr Carol Greenway for supervising my work, Cathy Charmaz for her critical review of this article, and Mo Bham and Alison Lee for encouragement and editorial advice. This research was completed as part of a Doctorate Thesis in educational psychology at Tavistock and Portman Clinic, London, UK and Essex University.

Notes

^1. Prevention aimed at risk or targeted populations within school.

^2. Universal aimed at improving the mental health of the whole population in school.

^3. ‘Change fatigue’ is referred to as being an inhibiting factor that can increase staff resistance to implementation due to other changes occurring at similar times.

^4. Protective factors that can focus on intervention, prevention, attributing cause to individual deficit medical model theoretical frameworks (Rowling, 2009).