Kirnan Jean, Fotinos Gianna, Pitt Kelsey, Lloyd Gavin
Psychology Department, School of Humanities & Social Sciences, The College of New Jersey, Ewing Township, NJ 08618, USA.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2025 Mar 29;22(4):523. doi: 10.3390/ijerph22040523.
One of the strategies to address the persistent youth mental health crisis is school-based educational programming. This paper reports on two distinct studies regarding , a school-based mental health education program: (1) program effectiveness, measured as gains in student mental health literacy; and (2) trends in help-seeking behavior before, during, and after the pandemic. A survey on program content was administered to assess program effectiveness. Data collected between 2020 and 2023 from four schools yielded 473 responses. A comparison of pre- and post-scores demonstrated statistically significant gains in program content. Mental health literacy improved across gender and grade level (8th, 9th, and 10th), as well as for students with prior exposure to a mental health curriculum. In the second study, help-seeking behavior was evaluated before, during, and after the pandemic. While other programs measure intention, measures actual behavior as students can ask for help for themselves or a friend. Data did not reflect individual student responses, but rather were aggregated and provided the number of students per presentation who requested help. Archived declaration card data from January 2019 through February 2024 was accessed, representing 28 different schools and 16,289 middle and high school student responses. School-level data were analyzed by grade level (middle school or high school) and date (pre-, intra-, or post-COVID-19). Significant differences in self-referral were found for both grade level and presentation date. Self-referrals were significantly higher post-COVID-19 compared to pre-COVID-19 with middle schoolers increasing 90% and high school students increasing 36%. Analysis of friend referrals showed a significant difference for grade level, but not presentation date. Again, middle school students were more likely to make a referral than high schoolers. The data suggest that the mental health crisis in middle school students persists at an alarming rate. Schools are at the forefront of addressing mental health issues for youth. External educational programming can bring awareness to mental health concerns and promote help-seeking in youth.
应对持续存在的青少年心理健康危机的策略之一是开展以学校为基础的教育项目。本文报告了两项关于一项以学校为基础的心理健康教育项目的不同研究：（1）项目效果，以学生心理健康素养的提升来衡量；（2）疫情前、疫情期间和疫情后寻求帮助行为的趋势。对项目内容进行了一项调查以评估项目效果。2020年至2023年期间从四所学校收集的数据产生了473份回复。前后分数的比较显示项目内容有统计学上的显著提升。心理健康素养在性别和年级水平（八年级、九年级和十年级）以及之前接触过心理健康课程的学生中都有所提高。在第二项研究中，对疫情前、疫情期间和疫情后寻求帮助的行为进行了评估。虽然其他项目衡量的是意愿，但[该项目]衡量的是实际行为，因为学生可以为自己或朋友寻求帮助。数据没有反映个别学生的回复，而是进行了汇总，并提供了每次求助的学生人数。获取了2019年1月至2024年2月的存档申报卡数据，代表了28所不同的学校和16289名初中和高中学生的回复。按年级水平（初中或高中）和日期（新冠疫情前、疫情期间或疫情后）对学校层面的数据进行了分析。在年级水平和申报日期方面都发现了自我推荐的显著差异。与新冠疫情前相比，疫情后自我推荐显著增加，初中生增加了90%，高中生增加了36%。对朋友推荐的分析显示年级水平存在显著差异，但申报日期没有。同样，初中生比高中生更有可能进行推荐。数据表明，中学生的心理健康危机仍以惊人的速度持续存在。学校处于解决青少年心理健康问题的前沿。外部教育项目可以提高对心理健康问题的认识，并促进青少年寻求帮助。
