Running head: MENTAL HEALTH IN A SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT 1

Mental Health and its Impact in the School Learning Environment

Eileen A. Vazquez

Cal State University of Dominguez Hills

Abstract

The front line is not only to be aware that there needs to be more knowledge in student’s mental

health, but also what causes these mind switches. A school is aimed to be a safe environment

where children are free to learn and hopefully not be judged by their teachers. This research will

show the connections between students’ social environment and the further effects of in school

environment changing their mental health.

Mental Health and its Impact in the School Learning Environment

The main group of students will be adolescents because this is when children are more

prone to drug exposer and fears of fitting in. Most of the quantitative research gathered will show

how students academics will affect their health over the course of one year, and the qualitative

research will elaborate on these findings based on “connectedness”, which will be further

explained.

Schooling and Mental Health1

Children’s experiences in school have the capacity to promote developmental

competencies associated with learning and achievement motivation, emotional functioning, and

social relationships, and in some instances can potentiate difficulties in these aspects of

functioning. The focus is on the relation between children’s academic and emotional functioning,

and on how school can shape both academic and mental health outcomes in children. The

qualitative research is sectioned in three main sections. Firstly, the significance of mental health

and psychopathology in development is discussed. Second is the linkages between children’s

academic and emotional functioning. Thirdly, a description of the interpersonal, instructional,

and organizational processes through which schools can influence the developmental course of

children’s achievement related behaviors, academic motivation, and their mental health.

Adolescent Health

This examines the association between social relationships and school engagement in

early secondary school & mental health, substance use, and educational achievement two to four

years later. The quantitative data was gathered through surveys in a secondary school with Year

8 (13-14 years old), Year 10 (16 years-old), and one year post-secondary school. A total of 2678

Year 8 students (74%) participated in the first wave of data collection. Seventy-one percent of
MENTAL HEALTH IN A SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT 4

the participating Year 8 students completed the post-secondary school survey. Having both good

school and social connectedness in Year 8 was associated with the best outcomes in later years.

In contrast, participants with low school connectedness but good social connectedness were at

elevated risk of anxiety/depressive symptoms, regular smoking, and using marijuana in later

years. The likelihood of completing school was reduced for those with either poor social

connectedness, low school connectedness, or both. Overall, young people’s experiences of early

secondary school and their relationships with others may continue to affect their moods, their

substances use in later years, and their likelihood of completing secondary school. Having both

good school connectedness and good social connectedness is associated with the best

achievement in learning outcomes and good health.

School Connectedness

Connectedness is described as the student’s acceptance, value, respect, and inclusion in

the school and its connection with mental health symptoms in adolescents. A sample of 2,022

students (999 boys and 1,023 girls) ages 12 to 14 years were measured at 2 time points (12

months apart) on school connectedness and mental health symptoms (general functioning,

depression, and anxiety symptoms). School connectedness correlated extensively with

concurrent mental health symptoms at both time points (between 38% and 55% with depression,

26% to 46% with general functioning, and 9% and 16% for anxiety symptoms). Using

“hierarchical linear modeling”, school connectedness also predicted depressive symptoms 1 year

later for both boys and girls, anxiety symptoms for girls, and general functioning for boys, even

after controlling for prior symptoms. The reverse, however, was not true: Prior mental health

symptoms did not predict school connectedness 1 year later when controlling for prior school

connectedness. Results showed a stronger than previously reported pattern with school
MENTAL HEALTH IN A SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT 5

connectedness and adolescent depressive symptoms, and a predictive link from school

connectedness to future mental health problems.

The Consequences of School Standards

This study focuses on the impact of the recent recommendations for raising standards in

American schools on a population at risk. Population at risk refers to those students likely to

leave school prior to high school graduation. The article goes through qualitative methods that

analyze every student who is in danger of failing due to American school standards affecting

their emotional state. The first goes into systematic evidence on factors that predict dropping out.

The second part clarifies the recent recommendations for raising standards in American schools.

The article then goes into considering the likely positive and negative effects of higher standards

on the population at risk in the absence of any other changes in the structure of schools. After

that, it led to identifying the school characteristics that can be altered to minimize the effects of

changes in academic standards on potential dropouts. The outcomes of the research imply

proposing recommendations to raise academic standards and lessen the dropout problem

simultaneously.

The Neighborhood Context

Mental health disorders in adolescence are inevitable, often carried into adulthood, and

are most likely associated with social status. Leads to a study in the neighborhood context,

specifically, socioeconomic stratification & racial/ethnic segregation, affect adolescent emotional

well-being by shaping personal opinions, and beliefs of their neighborhoods. Using a

community-based sample of 877 adolescents in Los Angeles County, it was found that youth in

low socioeconomic status (SES) neighborhoods perceive greater ambient hazards such as crime,

violence, drug use, and graffiti than those in high SES neighborhoods. The perception of the
MENTAL HEALTH IN A SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT 6

neighborhood as dangerous, in turn, influences the mental health of adolescents: the more

threatening the neighborhood, the more common the symptoms of depression, anxiety,

oppositional defiant disorder, and conduct disorder. This investigation demonstrates that research

into the mental health of young people should consider the socioeconomic and demographic

environments in which they live.

Discussion

This study analyses its connection with mental health symptoms in adolescents. These

findings are significant because it shows that there is a strong connection between connectedness

and adolescent depressive symptoms. The quantitative study of “School Connectedness”

examines the association between social relationships and school engagement in early secondary

school and mental health within four years later. The researchers studied students of different

grades to understand when a transition of anxiety symptoms may occur from lack of social

connectedness. The outcome was young people’s experiences of early secondary school and their

relationships with others may continue to affect their moods. These findings are relevant because

it shows that both school connectedness and social connectedness is both dependent for good

health.

“The Consequences of School Standards” describes a qualitative study analyzing the

effects of raising the standards in American school on a population of risk. The study seems to

reflect the theory of raising standards increasing negative changes in the structure of schools.

These findings are relevant because dropout problems occur, and lack of support from the school

raises the connection of schools affecting student’s mental health.

Sameroff goes deeper into the subject of school standards and describes a qualitative

research study in which the development of children’s motivation in achievement and learning
MENTAL HEALTH IN A SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT 7

can affect their emotional state. The researcher investigates the relation between children’s

academic and emotional functioning, and on how school can shape both academic and mental

health outcomes in children. The data was sectioned into three parts because this study goes into

the interpersonal influences that can occur. These findings are significant because they show the

process through which schools can influence the developmental course of children.

In “The Neighborhood Context,” Sucoff and Aneshensel focus on the socioeconomic

stratification, racial/ethnic segregation, and neighborhood context involving their emotional

well-being. This study seems to reflect the theory that low socioeconomic status neighborhoods

influence the mental health of adolescents. The outcomes of this research imply that the more

dangerous the neighborhood is, the more common the symptoms of depression and anxiety are.

These findings are relevant to my research because it verifies that the environment in which a

child lives in affects their ability to be progressive in school as well as the school connectedness.

Conclusion

This research played as a clear confirmation to prove that students will experience a

mental health disorder at some point in their lives as adolescents. This research also helped me

investigate the likelihood of schooling connectedness being the top cause of mental health issues.

Environmental connectedness is the one mental health trigger that people are mostly aware of,

and I wanted to put in the research showing that the pressures in a school environment are the

next biggest cause of mental disorders. Its why many students consider cheating and lying to

their teachers. The school standards can be damaging to a student’s brain if there is lack of

relationships with the school staff, and if there’s no environmental connectedness then there

needs to be school connectedness for the student. Without the support, there is no balance.
MENTAL HEALTH IN A SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT 8

References

Aneshensel C. S. & Sucoff C. A. (1996). The Neighborhood Context of Adolescent Mental

Health. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, volume 37 (Number 4), pages 293-310.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/2137258?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

Bond L., Butler H., Thomas L., Carlin J., Glover S., Bowes G., & Patton G. (2007). Social and

School Connectedness in Early Secondary School as Predictors of Late Teenage

Substance Use, Mental Health, and Academic Outcomes. Journal of Adolescent Health.

https://www.jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X(06)00422-8/pdf

McDill L. E., Natriello G., & Pallas A. M. (1986). A Population at Risk: Consequences of

Tougher School Standards for Student Dropouts. American Journal of Education, volume

94 (number 2). https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.1086/443841

Sameroff A. J., Lewis M., & Miller S. M. (2000) Handbook of Developmental Psychopathology.

Springer Science & Business Media. Pages 135-146.

https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=AZqJx9yQgYgC&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq

=Handbook+of+developmental+psychopathology,+2000+-+Springer&ots=lrJFz-

6eL2&sig=3Nfw6JsRnlXRadRIu6a6ibtsT14#v=onepage&q=Handbook%20of%20develo

pmental%20psychopathology%2C%202000%20-%20Springer&f=false

Shochet I.M., Dadds M. R., Ham D., &Montague R. (2010). School Connectedness is an

Underemphasized Parameter in Adolescent Mental Health: Results of a Community

Prediction Study. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology. Volume 35 (Issue

2), pages 170-179. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15374424jccp3502_1

Tables

Table 1. The distribution of census tracts across neighborhood types.

Table 2. The distribution of families across neighborhood types.

Figure 1: The structural component encompasses the stratification of neighborhoods by SES and

their segregation by race/ethnicity. These structural properties are seen as systematizing the daily

lives od residents, thereby generating the experiential component of neighborhoods.