Proceedings of The 8th International Conference on New Approaches in Education
Year: 2024
DOI:
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On Mental Health Education: Exploring the Knowledge of Mental Health Disorders Among Secondary School Learners in South Africa
Oratilwe Penwell Mokoena
ABSTRACT:
Secondary school learners represent a vulnerable population to mental health and wellbeing issues. Moreover, these group of learners tend to delay or fail to engage in help-seeking behaviours due to their lack of knowledge concerning mental disorder and failure to effectively recognize these disorders. Inclusion of mental health education in the normal teaching curriculum could improve the mental health and wellbeing of learners, and thus improve their academic performance. However, challenges abound specifically in embedding these materials in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines where students’ intrinsic interests may not align with mental health–themed course related work. To explore this barriers, the present study investigated the knowledge of mental health disorders among secondary school learners in South Africa. A self-made questionnaire consisting of three vignettes, highlighting various mental disorders, i.e. Mental depressive disorder (MDD), substance induced psychotic disorder (SIPD) and social anxiety disorder (SAD) was given to secondary school learners to fill. An informed consent was given to learners for parents to sign and allow for learner participation. A total of 529 learners were recruited in the study, the mean age was 15.64 ± 1.63 with age ranging from 13 to 21 years. Most of the participants were females [374 (70.70%) vs 155 (29.30%)], there were more learners in grade 8; 146 (27.6%), 10; 140 (26.47%) and 11; 136 (25.71%). Majority of the students 237 (44.8%) were staying with both parents and having full time employed parents 261 (49.34%). The knowledge of mental health disorders was relatively low in this study 187 (35.35%). In the univariate model, current grade, family living conditions, and employment status of the parent/guardian influenced learner knowledge of mental health disorders. The study concludes that learners in secondary are unable to recognize mental health disorders, hence, there is an urgency in the inclusion of mental health education in the school curricula to educate about various mental health disorders and how to effectively recognize them. Furthermore, learners should be encouraged to seek help when needed.
keywords: Youth, academic performance, mental health education, mental health literacy