A healthy start: promoting mental health and well-being in the early primary school years

Abstract

Mental health problems in children represent a significant international health concern, with up to one in five children using mental health services during the course of any given year. Identifying the processes of what prevents social, emotional and behaviour difficulties (SEBD) and promotes healthy development from an early age can make a significant contribution to the promotion of positive mental health in children. This article describes a longitudinal study which sought to identify the risk and promotive factors as young children move from the early to junior years in primary school. Multilevel analysis was used to identify the individual, classroom, school, home and community factors that predict change in SEBD and in prosocial behaviour in the early school years. It also calculated the cumulative effect of the various risk and promotive factors on the pupils' well-being and mental health. The article presents the windows of vulnerability and opportunity for young children's healthy development, proposing a trajectory for healthy development in early and middle childhood.

The impact of school culture on schools’ pupil well-being policy-making capacities

“…Another important factor in the enforceability of decisions is the presence of personal and professional support within the school (Cefai and Camilleri 2015;Laila 2015;Maas and Lake 2015;Vescio, Ross, and Adams 2008). Personal and professional support creates good relationships and trust.…”

“…Although the academic value of current thinking on policy-making capacities is apparent from the literature on school effectiveness (Cefai and Camilleri 2015;Laila 2015;Maas and Lake 2015), this concept has still not been sufficiently explored with regard to pupil wellbeing. There is very little empirical evidence on schools' pupil well-being policy-making capacities; this means that not much is known about how effectively schools formulate their well-being policy, or about the extent to which they are capable of promoting pupil wellbeing.…”

“…After all, the well-being of pupils plays an important role in their development (Cefai and Camilleri 2015;Park 2004). With a view to discovering contextual factors, such as the degree of external control, for example, that have an important influence on pupil well-being (Ryan and Deci 2000), research into the effectiveness of schools has no longer been focused exclusively on cognitive outcomes, but has also looked at the apparent well-being of their pupils (Gutman and Feinstein 2008).…”

Stress Effect Factors and Socio-Pathological Phenomena in Teaching and Learning Environment

“…Next authors such as (Braun and Carlotto, 2014) dealt with the perception of stress situation by university students in Slovakia at the secondary school students. According to (Cefai and Camilleri, 2015) the research concentrated on diagnosis of factors of stress of adolescents at the age of 15 -16. In the sample of 1648 students, he found out that adolescents are mostly threatened by psychical stress that was most commonly associated with examining, testing during classes or passing final examinations (Cordella and Pojani, 2014).…”

Pedagogical Evaluation and Kindergarten Inclusion

“…Increased knowledge in the field of brain development highlighted the importance of early experiences which influence the development of nerve cells (Cefai and Camilleri, 2015). Thus, positive and rich experiences during early childhood can have positive effects on brain development, helping children to acquire language skills, to develop problem-solving skills, to form healthy relationships with peers and adults and to acquire different skills that will be important throughout their later life.…”