Teachers’ Views On Mental Health Among Primary And Lower Secondary School Pupils In Finland

Author(s):

Marjorita Sormunen(submitting)Hannele Turunen(presenting)Outi Turunen Kirsi Bykachev Jussi Karppi Kirsti Kumpulainen

Conference:

ECER 2017

Network:

08. Research on Health Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

08 SES 02, Teachers and Mental Health Promotion in Schools

Paper Session

Time:

2017-08-22

15:15-16:45

Room:

K3.24

Chair:

Carole Faucher

Contribution

Childhood and adolescence are time of rapid growth and development, where the foundations for mental health are created at child’s immediate environments, like home and school. School is a unique resource in providing support and resources, and in preventing mental health problems (Weare & Nind 2011). There is a substantial literature that promotes early identification and early treatment of mental disorders (Falissard 2016). According to Kieling and colleagues (2011), early intervention and prevention are important means in avoiding later adult mental health problems and improving personal wellbeing and productivity. Even no increase can be found in Finland in children’s mental health problems over a 24-year period, service use has increased constantly, indicating that contact to service providers is occurring more often than previously (Sourander et al. 2016). Today’s communities where children grow differ substantially from the environments of previous generations, demanding adults new ways to act with children. At school, the teacher aims to create an environment that promotes learning. It includes, however, numerous situations that demand them to solve social problems during the conflicts, to negotiate with pupils, or to supervise them in many daily occasions. Teacher’s job is far more than merely curriculum-based teaching, as the Finnish document “Ethical principles for the teaching profession” describe: “Teachers can play a significant role in both the generation of positive learning experiences and the reinforcement of learners' self-esteem. Thus a teacher's work is a matter of providing opportunities for upbringing, instruction and learning for the ultimate benefit of individual learners.” (Trade union of education in Finland, 2016).

This study aims to investigate what kind of social, emotional, or behavioral symptoms of pupils the teachers rate as the most prevalent, and what are the actions in case the symptoms seem to be more severe. In addition, the stage of collaboration in children’s mental health issues is examined.

The research questions are:

What disruptive symptoms / behaviors do teachers describe as the most usual among pupils aged 7-15?
Who are the most sought contact persons for teachers in case of worrying situation with a pupil?
How do teachers view the collaboration related to children’s mental health issues inside and between the educational sector and other sectors in municipalities?

The broader context for this research is a project “eHealth Services for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (eCAP), 2015-2018”, which aims at improving child psychiatric services in peripheral areas by developing eHealth tools for facilitating better cooperation between professionals working with children having mental health problems. In addition to Finland, project partners include Sweden, Norway and UK (Scotland).

Method

A quantitative survey from teachers (primary and lower secondary levels, class grades 1-9) was conducted in December 2016 from 19 municipalities in North Savo region, Finland. The questionnaire used for data collection was developed based on scientific literature and national documents, and distributed electronically to municipalities. The data have been preliminary analyzed by descriptive statistics, and will be further analysed by bivariate and multivariate analysis. The themes included in data analysis are 1) children’s mental health symptoms and mental health promotion in teacher’s work, and 2) collaboration between education sector and other sectors in municipal level.

Expected Outcomes

Preliminary findings indicate that 67% of teachers (n=180, age range between 24-63 years) experienced that the mental health symptoms of girls has risen clearly or some in recent years, and 75% of teachers expressed the same among boys. Teachers evaluated that the most often experienced emotional and behavioral difficulties among pupils were difficulty in concentration (91%), restlessness (89%), and easily distracted by external stimuli (86%). When the teachers started to feel worried about child’s exceptional behavior or symptoms, they preferred discussing the matter always or very often with the child alone (89%) or with special education teacher (82%). Half of the teachers included also parents in discussion with the child. The most contacted professionals in worrying situation were school curators (62%) and school health nurses (50%). Self-studying was evaluated as the most usual mean how the teachers had learned about mental health issues of children, while teacher training had offered least information for teachers (61% and 15%, respectively). Most of the teachers evaluated collaboration between them and school health services, and with parents as good (81% both). According to 50% of teachers, the lack of multi-professional collaboration is a challenge in early detection of mental health problems of children. The largest challenges were obtained in the areas of flow of information and lack of proper work supervision (58% both), lack of personnel (64%), and lack of time (73%). These finding together with open responses revealed numerous examples of the multi-sided and challenging work of teachers. Dealing with pupils’ social, emotional and behavioural difficulties is part of teachers’ daily work, but training for children’s mental health issues, or for dealing with the problems have been minimally available in their education. Many teachers expressed the need to have access to advice and consultation in relation to children’s emotional and behavioural difficulties.

References

Falissard B. 2016. Early detection of child and adolescent mental disorders: some elements of a necessary debate. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 25: 1041-1043. Kieling et al. 2011. Child and adolescent mental health worldwide: evidence for action. Lancet 378: 1515-1525. Sourander et al. 2016. Changes in mental health, bullying behavior, and service use among eight-year-old children over 24 years. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 55(8): 717-725. Trade union of education in Finland. 2016. Ethical Principles for the Teaching Profession. Available at: www.oaj.fi Weare K & Nind M. 2011. Mental health promotion and problem prevention in schools: what does the evidence say? Health Promotion International 26(S1): i29-i69.

Author Information

Marjorita Sormunen (submitting)

University of Eastern Finland

Departme

Kuopio

Hannele Turunen (presenting)

Univeristy of Eastern Finland

Nursing Science

KUOPIO

Outi Turunen

University of Eastern Finland, Finland

Kirsi Bykachev

University of Eastern Finland, Finland

Jussi Karppi

University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio University Hospital

Kirsti Kumpulainen