Session Information
99 ERC SES 03 A, Ignite Talks
Ignite Talks Session
Contribution
The high rates of depression and suicide amongst teenagers highlights the need for more preventative mental health and wellbeing measures to be in place from an earlier age. Government initiatives such as wellbeing programs and practices are being implemented into schools. There has been considerable variance in their effects, however, likely due to factors relating to implementation (Durlak, 2016).
The purpose of the proposed study is to explore how wellbeing programs are being carried out in primary schools. The aim is to highlight the opportunities and challenges that teachers have with school-based wellbeing programs and how their related practices are perceived by students. Therefore, the research questions include:
- What student/teacher/school-level factors are associated with the implementation of well-being programs in primary schools?
The Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) (Cane et al., 2012) will be used as the theoretical framework for the study. The framework consists of 14 domains (1) Knowledge; (2) Skills; (3) Social/Professional Role and Identity; (4) Beliefs and Capability; (5) Optimism; (6) Beliefs about Consequences; (7) Reinforcement; (8) Intentions; (9) Goals; (10) Memory, Attention and Decision Processes; (11) Environmental Context and Resources; (12) Social Influences; (13) Emotion; and (14) Behavioural Regulation. These domains will be used alongside implementation fidelity indicators (Dane & Schneider, 1998) to understand barriers and facilitators to wellbeing program implementation.
By utilising the TDF and implementation fidelity indicators to explore teachers' and students' perspectives of wellbeing programs that have been implemented in schools, we can begin to understand what conditions are needed to increase the uptake of effective wellbeing programs and practices and explain why variance in implementation and effectiveness of programs occurs (Durlak & DuPre, 2008). A recent systematic review that was conducted to identify articles that explored teachers’ views and experiences of implementing mental health and wellbeing programs found only seven studies (Goodwin et al., 2023), two of which were conducted in Australia. Evidently, there is a need to explore this area as programs are increasingly implemented into schools. Furthermore, although behavioural interventions are often guided by theory, in practice they are often not or are only minimally (Michie & Prestwich, 2010). Similarly, studies identified in Goodwin and colleagues (2023) review lack a theoretical framework when constructing questions for teachers and analysis is often undertaken through exploration of themes that were discussed (e.g., in interviews), without attributing these themes to any framework. The authors recommend future research to adopt more robust methodological approaches. Providing a theoretical framework such as this will help to develop a better foundation for exploring and analysing teachers’ and students’ perspectives of wellbeing programs/practices.
Method
The research aims or questions will be addressed using a qualitative two-phase case study research design that will include semi-structured interviews and focus groups. Primary school teachers and their students in K-6 classes at government schools in NSW, Australia will be invited if they have recently or currently implemented (e.g., within one school year) a wellbeing program. These methodology and target populations are appropriate to answer the research questions because they will enable an in-depth exploration of how current wellbeing program/s are perceived by teachers and students in NSW primary schools. Specifically, qualitative data will be collected from teachers through in-person interviews and preliminarily analysed (Phase 1) before collecting data from their students via focus groups (Phase 2). This qualitative design will allow for the exploration of a phenomenon (wellbeing program implementation) from a teachers’ perspective through interviews, before confirming questions for focus groups with students. The synthesis of data from the two phases of the study will be undertaken at the time of interpretation of the results (after Phase 2). This design is suggested to be particularly suitable for implementation research as it provides a practical way to understand multiple perspectives and multiple types of outcomes (Peters et al., 2013). To analyse the data, teacher interview transcripts will be read and considered in relation to the domains from the TDF and then attributed to one or more of the domains. Then thematic analysis will be undertaken as an inductive approach for the remaining data. The data will then be coded into barriers and facilitators to implementation. These barriers and facilitators may then be discussed in relation to teachers’ capability, opportunity, and motivation to interpret meaning from the interviews (Hsiegh & Shannon, 2005). This data will then be used to develop and conduct student focus groups in the second phase. A similar approach will be undertaken for the student data, consisting of transcribing the recording, attributing the data to one or more domains, and then conducting a thematic analysis. Finally, the data will be triangulated with the interview data by using the previous frameworks and themes. For instance, students’ attitudes towards the program may be compared across schools and then triangulated with the teacher interview data by examining questions such as those relating to teacher’s social and environmental influences (e.g., to explore whether teacher/school-related factors may be associated with students’ attitudes towards the program).
Expected Outcomes
By exploring teachers' and students' perspectives of wellbeing programs that have been implemented in schools, we can begin to understand what conditions are needed to increase the uptake of effective wellbeing programs and practices and explain why variance in implementation and effectiveness of programs occurs (Durlak & DuPre, 2008). The TDF can be used to highlight specific domains such as knowledge, skills, environmental context and resources, social influence etc. that may impact the effectiveness of wellbeing programs. We may find, for example, that teachers lack sufficient time and are provided with inadequate support from colleagues or administration such as their principal. Furthermore, students’ perspectives such as their attitudes towards the program may be influenced by various factors such as their teachers’ prior beliefs and capability, optimism, and behavioural regulation. Highlighting such barriers to implementation may support understanding of where/how to allocate further resources towards wellbeing programs to improve future implementation.
References
Cane, J., O’Connor, D., & Michie, S. (2012). Validation of the theoretical domains framework for use in behaviour change and implementation research. Implementation science, 7, 1-17. Dane, A.V.; Schneider, B.H. (1998). Program Integrity in primary and early secondary prevention: Are implementation effects out of control? Clinical Psychology Review, 18, 23–45. Durlak, J. A. (2016). Programme implementation in social and emotional learning: basic issues and research findings. Cambridge Journal of Education, 46(3), 333-345. Durlak, J. A., & DuPre, E. P. (2008). Implementation matters: A review of research on the influence of implementation on program outcomes and the factors affecting implementation. American Journal of Community Psychology, 41, 327-350. Goodwin, J., Behan, L., & O’Brien, N. (2023). Teachers’ views and experiences of student mental health and well-being programmes: A systematic review. Journal of Child & Adolescent Mental Health, 1-20. Hsieh, H. F., & Shannon, S. E. (2005). Three approaches to qualitative content analysis. Qualitative health research, 15(9), 1277-1288. Michie, S., & Prestwich, A. (2010). Are interventions theory-based? Development of a theory coding scheme. Health Psychology, 29(1), 1. Peters, D. H., Adam, T., Alonge, O., Agyepong, I. A., & Tran, N. (2013). Implementation research: what it is and how to do it. Bmj, 347.
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