Nigerian secondary school children’s knowledge of and attitudes to mental health and illness

Dogra, Nisha; Omigbodun, Olayinka; Adedokun, Tunde; Bella, Tolulope; Ronzoni, Pablo; Adesokan, Adekunle

doi:10.1177/1359104511410804

Cited by 40 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 37 publications

(60 reference statements)

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“…Previous work among young people in this environment has shown that stigma is highly prevalent, knowledge about mental illness is poor, and attitudes towards people with mental illness are largely negative (Ronzoni et al 2010, Dogra et al 2012. As a follow-up, this study reports the impact of a school-based mental health awareness programme aimed at increasing mental health literacy among young people and reducing negative views about persons with mental illness.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 83%

“…Though stigmatising attitudes towards people suffering from mental illness have been well described in the Nigerian context (Adewuya and Makanjuola 2005, Gureje et al 2005, Ronzoni et al 2010, Dogra et al 2012), very few programmes have aimed at reducing stigma, especially among young people in this part of the world. Previous work among young people in this environment has shown that stigma is highly prevalent, knowledge about mental illness is poor, and attitudes towards people with mental illness are largely negative (Ronzoni et al 2010, Dogra et al 2012.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The impact of a mental health teaching programme on rural and urban secondary school students’ perceptions of mental illness in southwest Nigeria

Bella-Awusah

Adedokun

Dogra³

et al. 2014

Journal of Child & Adolescent Mental Health

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 83%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of a mental health teaching programme on rural and urban secondary school students’ perceptions of mental illness in southwest Nigeria

Bella-Awusah

Adedokun

Dogra³

et al. 2014

Journal of Child & Adolescent Mental Health

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“…One way of approaching this is through providing tailored psycho-education in schools. Research has shown that there are gaps in young people's knowledge of mental health (Dogra et al, 2012a). However Svirydzenka et al (2014) found that students were able to use a broad range of themes when discussing mental health.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Research has indicated that many young people worldwide are not well informed about mental health (Dogra et al, 2012a;Pinfold et al, 2003;Ronzoni et al, 2010;Rose et al, 2007;Sessa, 2005;Sheffield et al, 2004;Stengard and Appelqvist-Schmidlechner, 2010). As young people spend a significant amount of their lives in school, school-based interventions are therefore an important factor to consider regarding the promotion of mental health.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Students ' understandings of mental health and their preferred learning platforms

Bone

Dugard

Vostanis

et al. 2015

Journal of Public Mental Health

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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine students’ understandings of mental health and their learning preferences, in order to provide guidance for developing targeted mental health education. Design/methodology/approach – A study-specific self-administered questionnaire was used at two English schools (n=980; ages 11-18), incorporating a combination of open-ended and fixed-choice items. Data were subject to content analysis, cross-tabulation of frequencies and statistical analyses. Findings – Overall, students understood mental health in terms of personal attributes or disorder, however older students were more likely to talk about relationships. Males were less likely to say they wanted to learn about mental health than females, believing they had no need to learn more. White students were also less interested in learning about mental health than Indian students. Overall, students said they would not use social media to learn, however Indian students were most likely to want to use it. Younger students preferred school-based learning to online. Research limitations/implications – The questionnaires were study specific and self-report. However interesting demographic variations in responses were found, worthy of further exploration. Social implications – Policymakers should consider targeted mental health interventions in schools and research the potential roles/barriers of the internet and social media. Long-term possible benefits relate to improved preventative strategies within schools. Originality/value – Previous research has focused on the delivery of mental health promotion/education in schools, whereas the current study drew on a large sample of students to understand how they define mental health for themselves, as well as how they prefer to learn about it.

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“…The importance and challenge of addressing MHL in young people globally is well-documented [2,[25][26][27][28][29]. A recent systematic review of community MHL in Sub-Saharan Africa reported that the predominant perspective of the cause of mental illness is that it is the result of ultra-human or supernatural forces [30].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Malawi Educators Assessment of Student Mental Health Outcomes

Kutcher¹,

Gilberds²

2015

Int J Sch Cog Psychol

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Purpose: This paper presents teacher perceptions of life improvements achieved by students following the application of a school based curriculum mental health literacy resource in Malawi.Methods: Life improvement metrics were generated based on educators' self-reported questionnaires obtained as part of the midterm evaluation of a larger youth Depression intervention project. These metrics include a stigma reduction variable, an improved behaviour at school variable, and a mental health related help-seeking variable.Results: Most teachers (81.3 %) reported a positive change in their students' attitudes toward mental illness following exposure to the mental health literacy curriculum resource. Ninety-six percent of teachers reported improvement in student behaviours at school, and all teachers reported one or more mental health care related help seeking behaviours among students.Research Limitations: The sample size was relatively small and recruited from only two districts in Malawi. This is a pilot field implementation and will need to be expanded with larger numbers into a greater number of school districts in order to improve the robustness of the findings.Originality/value: To our knowledge this is the first study to examine teachers' perspectives on student life improvement metrics related to mental health literacy in sub-Saharan Africa. This method of measuring the impact of school-based interventions on students in African schools may be a useful and culturally meaningful approach to youth mental health assessment.

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Nigerian secondary school children’s knowledge of and attitudes to mental health and illness

Cited by 40 publications

References 37 publications

The impact of a mental health teaching programme on rural and urban secondary school students’ perceptions of mental illness in southwest Nigeria

The impact of a mental health teaching programme on rural and urban secondary school students’ perceptions of mental illness in southwest Nigeria

Students ' understandings of mental health and their preferred learning platforms

Malawi Educators Assessment of Student Mental Health Outcomes

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