Why is research into youth mental health essential?
Youth mental health research is essential for good health, and to ensure happy, functioning young people is a moral obligation for society. It is because of research that we now understand much more about how and why poor mental health can start in childhood and why it results in many young people later facing mental health difficulties such as depression and anxiety. Further still, mental health is related to physical health, for example the adverse childhood experiences young people face can predict serious physical health outcomes, and academic achievement. We also know that other serious mental health disorders, such as psychosis are most likely to surface in late teenage years and early adulthood, whilst young people are still in education.
It’s safe to say there is a lot going on during youth. The brain is still developing, particularly the prefrontal cortex, that is used for language and thinking skills. Young people are laying down the important hardware that will shape their adult behaviour.
Improving outcomes (Immediately and later life)
Our understanding of mental health is dependent on research, but research is not reserved for the ‘brainy’ that come in wearing white lab coats. Researchers are typically open individuals, who love to inquire about things, and learn more – much like teachers really! By researching youth mental health together, we can learn what specific challenges young people face, how developing things such as emotional regulation, social media literacy and gender identity affects their lives, and give them a voice in shaping the help they get to manage this.
What’s more is that teachers are ideally placed to capture the experience of young people, and provide invaluable insights into youth mental health. The aim of this content is to de-mystify research and give teachers a foundation in youth mental health research.
We will explain some of the jargon that surrounds youth mental health research and talk about the practicalities of being involved in research projects at your school. Some of the language used in research can be confusing, but whilst research can be complicated there are some fundamental concepts that are quite simple and easy to understand.
Some terms you may often hear being talked about in research are:
The practicalities of conducting research
Research teams want to fit in with your current school schedule – we understand that between assessments, external visitors, field trips, absences and more, the school day can be busy and unpredictable. Communicating honestly with the researchers in your school about the flexibility you require is hugely important to a good working relationship – for instance if a certain class has a lot of absences that day the research team could work with a different class.
It is challenging to get ethical approval for research that requires pulling student out of class and getting them to participate in research away from their peers – which would disrupt your class time. It is much better to do research in the classroom for several reasons; the classroom environment keeps things as natural for the student as possible, so we can see their behaviour how it usually would be and avoid bias. Research in the classroom also avoids issues around space too – such as those times where it seems the only spare spot is in a corridor. These are just some examples of how researchers and schools can work together easily, and accommodatingly.
We’ve been through how research can benefit students and the knowledge basis, but what about the benefit for teachers?
School is a place for cognitive development (Alibaba & Nathan, 2010) and research in schools is critical to understanding how schools facilitate psychological development, and positive mental health.
It sometimes takes a very long time for research to be published, but once the data collection is finished the research team can share the preliminary results with you, and talk you through their perspective and the knowledge gained. The data will be specific to your school, or even your class, so the researcher can help you understand any particular problems that might be arising in your classroom, and help suggest things that could help.
What’s more, if research from schools highlights key areas of concern for staff or pupils then securing further research funding is much more likely, so more money can be allocated to understanding the school environment, and how to best support youth mental health.
Research can also be used to support calls for greater provision of youth mental health services, a much under-funded sector in the UK with 76% of parents stating their child’s mental health deteriorated whilst having to wait or Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services support, and of those who waited more than six months for support 85% stating their children’s mental health had deteriorated (Youngminds, 2018). Ultimately, by taking part in youth mental health research school staff can help us learn how to bridge the gap between referrals and support from CAHMS, and support students in the environments they are in every day.
To hear more about how research can be useful for teachers we at Breathe have developed the video below: