Educator Perspectives of Early Childhood Mental Health: A Qualitative Study in Colorado

Abstract

Mental health problems in early childhood (e.g., depression, anxiety) have a similar prevalence as for older individuals, with 10-15% of preschoolers meeting criteria for clinical diagnosis. Research has shown that intervention to support mental health in early childhood is important to mitigate later problems. However, early intervention is predicated on early identification; by the time young children encounter specialists (e.g., psychologists), problems are often severe. Early childhood educators have the potential to identify mental health concerns in young children. Yet, little is known about early childhood educators' understanding of early childhood mental health, necessitating pilot research. The present study used focus groups to better understand early educator's perceptions of young children's mental health. Participants identified four primary themes that guide their understanding: causes of mental health problems, observable signs of mental health problems, knowledge of mental health supports, and barriers to mental health supports. Implications and suggested future directions are also explored.

study on mental health of students teacher in relation to their achievement in education psychology

“…This is may be due to fact that rural students have better mental health than male. This finding is in agreement with the finding of the studies by Stein, Rachel(2021). The finding of present study shows that there is no significant difference among arts, science and Mathematics student's teacher in their mental health.…”

“…At 5% level of significance, the table value of 'F' is 3.02). It is inferred from the above table that calculates 'F' value (0.756) is lesser than the table value (3.00) for df(2, 297) and at 5% level of significance. Hence the null hypothesis is accepted.…”

Promoting Mental Health Help-Seeking Behaviors by Mental Health Literacy Interventions in Secondary Education? Needs and Perspectives of Adolescents and Educational Professionals

“…Second, both the adolescents and EPs experienced that EPs lack competencies to support adolescents with mental health problems. This finding corresponds to previous findings that EPs rate their training in mental health as inadequate, even though they themselves perceive it as part of their educating role to address mental health problems in their students and view the topic of student mental health as serious [29,[41][42][43]. However, these findings have not previously been confirmed from the perspective of the adolescents.…”

A Drop in an Overflowing Bucket: Trauma Training for Preschool Educators; A phenomenological Case Study

“…One study found that many early childhood educators felt that socioemotional development is mainly in uenced by events outside of their control (Papadopoulou et al, 2014). Another study found that while many earlychildhood educators desired the time and space to learn trauma intervention skills, those opportunities were commonly unattainable due to funding (Stein & Russell, 2021). Overall, it is clear this Birth-5 population is unique and has components needing analysis outside of the K-12 professional development system.…”

“…Previous research examining early-childhood educator populations shows there are systemic issues which deeply in uence the effectiveness of professional development trainings for this demographic (Papadopoulou et al, 2014;Stein & Russell, 2021). Funding is commonly highlighted as one of the top issues (Blewitt et al, 2021).…”