Gaal Susanne R, Fuller Matthew B
Department of Education Leadership, College of Education, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX; Adjunct Professor, Lonestar College, Houston, TX.
Department of Education Leadership, College of Education, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX.
J Sch Health. 2024 Apr;94(4):308-316. doi: 10.1111/josh.13425. Epub 2024 Jan 30.
Mass school shootings have created fear in the American public. The results of this fear have been the hardening of schools, lockdowns, and active shooter drills, yet the mass shootings have not ended. The goal of this study was to analyze the mental health awareness of K-12 public schools teachers in Texas with a goal to identify the connections between mental health awareness and school safety.
Data were used from an archival database of K-12 teacher responses in the 2020 Texas Educators' Needs Assessment Regarding School Safety and Victims Services to assess the current state of student mental health concerns and the connection of these concerns to school safety. This needs assessment included one mixed methods survey that was collected from Texas K-12 educators and Texas educators working in higher education in 2020. The original study included 25,161 usable responses (6.1%). For the purpose of this study, only K-12 teacher responses were used in the analysis. The K-12 teacher participants (n = 19,888) included the following institutional levels: (a) special setting, 2,919 (14.7%); (b) elementary school, 6,813 (34.3%); (c) middle/intermediate school, 4,189 (21.1%); (d) high school, 5,864 (29.5%); and (e) district level, 103 (0.5%). A total of 8,053 participant's qualitative responses and 10 of the original quantitative survey questions from the archival data were used to identify all findings in the study.
Collected qualitative and quantitative participant responses' outlined a need to improve student mental health by strengthening the focus on supporting all stakeholders (e.g., teachers, parents, counselors, and students) in mental health awareness and education. Participant comments focused on the lack of training, counselor support, and community support regarding the mental health needs of their students.
Recommendations to improve student mental health that were developed from this study identified key goals in school counselor role and responsibility to student mental health, increased involvement of community agencies, and improvement to in-school mental health counseling. Final recommendations of this study were focused on the need to improve student mental health if stakeholders want to develop a positive school environment. The failure to build an environment that is focused on student mental health will continue to affect the goal to improve overall school safety.
大规模校园枪击事件在美国公众中引发了恐慌。这种恐慌导致学校加强安保、实施封锁并开展主动射击者演习，但大规模枪击事件仍未停止。本研究的目的是分析德克萨斯州K-12公立学校教师的心理健康意识，以确定心理健康意识与校园安全之间的联系。
数据来自2020年德克萨斯州教育工作者关于学校安全和受害者服务需求评估的K-12教师回应档案数据库，以评估学生心理健康问题的现状以及这些问题与校园安全的联系。这项需求评估包括一项混合方法调查，该调查于2020年从德克萨斯州的K-12教育工作者和高等教育领域的德克萨斯州教育工作者中收集。原始研究包括25,161份可用回复（6.1%）。为了本研究的目的，分析中仅使用了K-12教师的回复。K-12教师参与者（n = 19,888）包括以下机构级别：（a）特殊学校，2,919人（14.7%）；（b）小学，6,813人（34.3%）；（c）初中/中级学校，4,189人（21.1%）；（d）高中，5,864人（29.5%）；以及（e）学区级别，103人（0.5%）。总共8,053名参与者的定性回复以及档案数据中原始定量调查的10个问题被用于确定研究中的所有发现。
收集到的参与者定性和定量回复表明，需要通过加强对所有利益相关者（如教师、家长、辅导员和学生）心理健康意识和教育的关注来改善学生心理健康。参与者的评论集中在缺乏针对学生心理健康需求的培训、辅导员支持和社区支持。
本研究提出的改善学生心理健康的建议确定了学校辅导员在学生心理健康方面的角色和责任的关键目标、社区机构参与度的提高以及校内心理健康咨询的改善。本研究的最终建议集中在，如果利益相关者想要营造积极的学校环境，就需要改善学生心理健康。未能营造注重学生心理健康的环境将继续影响改善整体校园安全的目标。
