ABSTRACT
Adolescent mental health disorders and concerns contribute to a wide range of developmental problems. These concerns are overlooked in low socioeconomic populations. Elementary students suffering from mental health issues are more prone to poor academic achievement and lower success in school. Without appropriate and adequate treatment of one’s mental health, the student is unable to perform at their optimal learning ability. Differentiation of teaching is crucial to most school districts and the importance of meeting the needs of students at individual levels is the primary focus for educators and school leaders; yet, differentiation does not focus on the holistic needs of students. A student dealing with trauma, depression, anxiety, mood disorders, etc. is unable to focus on education or learning.
Educators and school leaders should be trained by mental health experts to be competent in identifying mental concerns in students. If there is a Transformational Leader engaged with front line teachers to identify the needs, wants, and goals for student psychological support, then the student’s academic success will be easy to focus on.
There has been a growth in the study of mental health in adolescents and the connection to success outcomes for students, yet the research and implementation of mental health programs is still limited across the world. Basic psychology theory according to Maslow states that there is a hierarchy of needs where as humans, we need to have our basic needs satisfied before higher levels of development can be reached. If it is well known that an individual experiencing trauma or suffering from mental illness is not able to perform at an optimal level of brain performance, than why are school systems not strongly focusing on the psychological needs of students? Primarily young students in elementary. If mental illness, trauma, and/or fmaily history of psychological stressors were identified early in elementary school, students could receive effective and appropriate intervention at a young age providing them with an equal opportunity to education and the student being able to adequately absorb knowledge and result in positive student academic growth and achievement. “A large and growing body of research from studies in the United States and throughout the world has demonstrated a significant relationship between mental health and academic performance in children and adolescents. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies have found that children who experience mental health problems are more likely to have unfavorable educational outcomes, including poor grades, delays in reading, grade repetition, school drop-out ideation, and lower educational attainment than their peers without mental health problems” (Murphy et al., 2014).
Having a leader within schools and in school districts that are experts in mental health, who train and work with teachers (similar to special education case managers do) there can be substantial change and growth within students. Transformational Leaders “serve as role models, sacrificing personal gain, acting consistently, and demonstrating ethical courage, leaders build emotional attachments that are leveraged in service of goals. These attachments lead to followers emulating the leader and perceiving them as trustworthy and well respected. Thus, idealized influence is as a result of both the behaviors that the leader enacts and followers' attributions” (Dugan, 2017). Having experts working with Teachers to model and teach them about mental health, along with following student progress will create the same traits within educators and lead to student emotional and academic success.
Murphy et al. (2014) conducted a longitudinal study of elementary students through a national program in Chile that is the equivalent to the American Head Start program. The Ministry of Education provided the surveys and information to a large sample of students, parents, and teachers identified as high risk population schools. Many factors were taken into consideration, such as: teenage mother, family member disabled by mental illness, family history of mental illness, welfare participation, family income, migrant status, child identified behaviors by school, and many more. This study is one of few that include a large sample size in comparison to other studies researching the implications of mental health on student academic performance. Murhpy et. al research used a sample of over 37,000 students (most other research was significantly smaller sample sizes). The study began in 2009 when the students were all in first grade. Students that were identified as high risk for poor academic performance due to their current mental illness were then tracked through third grade. The students were then assessed to see if interventions for mental illness resulted in a decrease in symptoms would then cause them to have significant improvement in academic performance. “The results suggest that mental health measures may be among the most important predictors of future academic performance for elementary school children and may therefore be useful in identifying students who might benefit from preventive interventions. While current academic performance was by far the best predictor of future academic performance, such data are typically not available until the end of the school year. School systems can administer standardized psychological testing earlier in the academic year, to identify students in need of additional classroom support” (Murphy et al., 2014).
There is no question that socioeconomic problems within a family, school, and community has direct links to academic success within schools. “Socioeconomic status has also been linked to indicators of mental health, such that individuals living in poverty are more likely to suffer from feelings of hostility, psychological stress, and depression. Children from early childcare programs with greater family and neighborhood socioeconomic risk factors were found to have lower cognitive skills than their peers” (Lewis et al,. 2021). Many school districts across the country have implemented positive behavioral systems to reward students with appropriate behaviors. These PBIS systems can be effective if they are implemented and utilized appropriately. For instance, many schools will have a PBIS incentive program and a committee and provide out of class fun activities/parties for students monthly. If a student has poor conduct reported on their file, have received office referrals, or parent conferences regarding the behavior of a child, they are not allowed to attend the PBIS incentive. There is a miscommunication of the purpose of this incentive. If a child is unable to attend due to negative behavior, the behaviors expressed by this child need to addressed through appropriate identification and interventions. A child “acting out” is a child in distress. There needs to be interventions by specialists working on evaluating possible psychological stressors or diagnosable mental illness for this child and implement treatment goals individualized for that student. Punishing a child for their reaction to psychological stressors they are experiencing, is not going to help them improve. This student will lose trust and respect in the school system, not develop a relationship with advancing their education, and will continuously engage in more devious behaviors.
In conclusion, school districts are inclined to promote their ability to focus on mental health and the social emotional development of adolescents, but they fall short. Data clearly shows that students experiencing psychological issues, living in poverty, coming from difficult familial situations, and many other risk factors are going to have a negative impact on the student’s ability to perform optimally within their education. Educators are quick to identify “low performing” students and want to differentiate their teaching for these children, but fail to research the causes of the “low performance.” A child in distress, will remain in distress. As long as the distress continues, the ability of the brain to focus on acquiring knowledge will not happen. The social emotional learning and the psychological support within educational systems needs to be addressed by mental health experts and implemented across every school at every grade level. Implementing leaders with transformational leadership skills will allow for significant change within student’s success and begin to eliminate the poor academic performance that is caused by psychological concerns within a large number of students across the world.
REFERENCES
Dugan, J. P. (2017). Leadership theory: Cultivating critical perspectives. Jossey-Bass.
Lewis, K. M., Holloway, S. D., Bavarian, N., Silverthorn, N., DuBois, D. L., Flay, B. R., & Siebert, C. F. (2021). Effects of positive action in elementary school on student behavioral and social-emotional outcomes. The Elementary School Journal, 121(4), 635–655. https://doi.org/10.1086/714065
Murphy, J. M., Guzmán, J., McCarthy, A. E., Squicciarini, A. M., George, M., Canenguez, K. M., Dunn, E. C., Baer, L., Simonsohn, A., Smoller, J. W., & Jellinek, M. S. (2014). Mental health predicts better academic outcomes: A longitudinal study of elementary school students in Chile. Child Psychiatry & Human Development, 46(2), 245–256. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-014-0464-4
