Children’s Mental Health Providers’ Perceptions of Mental Health Literacy Among Parents and Caregivers

The Development, Pilot, and Process Evaluation of a Parent Mental Health Literacy Intervention Through Community Sports Clubs

“…Recognition of symptoms is crucial to the identification of existing youth mental health disorders and treatment utilization with multiple studies showing that parents are largely uncertain in their ability to identify symptoms (Pescosolido et al, 2008, Frauenholtz, Conrad-Hiebner, & Mendenhall, 2015.…”

A Systematic Review of Parent and Caregiver Mental Health Literacy

“…Similarly, 86.0% of foster carers were able to accurately recognise a mental health problem from a vignette (Bonfield, Guishard-Pine, & Langdon, 2010) but this was not associated with their ability to detect a mental health problem in their child. In another study, 66.7% of mental health providers indicated that parents' mental health knowledge was strongest in terms of identifying symptoms (Frauenholtz, Conrad Hiebner, & Mendenhall, 2015). However, in the same study almost half (44.8%) reported that parents had very little or no knowledge of youth mental health disorders overall, with 79.3% rating parent knowledge as limited, mostly inaccurate and inconsistent, especially in terms of prevention, treatment and help-seeking options.…”

“…There were mixed findings relating to mental health knowledge of parents and caregivers with studies highlighting strengths and gaps in knowledge. Five cross-sectional studies examined parents' recognition of mental health disorders symptoms (Bonfield, Guishard-Pine, & Langdon, 2010;Frauenholtz, Conrad Hiebner, & Mendenhall, 2015;Lawrence et al, 2015;Shah et al, 2004). In one study, mothers had high problem recognition accuracy with 91.0% correctly identifying a mental health problem from a depression vignette, and 84.0% from an anxiety vignette (Shah et al, 2004).…”

“…This finding emphasises the need for widespread mental health literacy education, including how best to respond and assist in a mental health crisis. This is especially important in regards to educating those adults in a position of care and responsibility on how to prevent and manage youth mental health disorders (Kelly et al, 2011) Relatively little is known about the factors that influence parental mental health literacy (Frauenholtz, Conrad-Hiebner, & Mendenhall, 2015). Less still is known about the mental health literacy of those others in a position of direct responsibility for children and adolescents, such as family caregivers, legal guardians and foster carers.…”

Ahead of the game protocol: a multi-component, community sport-based program targeting prevention, promotion and early intervention for mental health among adolescent males

“…Therefore, parents need to be able to provide adequate support and assistance when their child or adolescent shows symptoms of a mental health disorder [ 44 ]. Research, however, suggests that the mental health literacy of parents (in terms of their children’s mental health) is limited [ 45 ] and parents are not adequately prepared or confident to assist children who experience a mental health disorder [ 46 ].…”