Exploring teachers' perceptions of their student mental health support

Abstract

Section A
There is an emphasis on early intervention in support of children and young people’s mental health. Given the amount of time teachers spend with students, they have been positioned by research and governmental policy as well-placed to play a part in this. Teachers’ experiences and perceptions of this have been captured in research, however, there has been a focus on the challenges that they face. This review aimed to explore existing research to identify the facilitators of teachers’ student mental health support.

A systematic search of three databases was conducted to identify qualitative studies that explored teachers’ experiences of supporting students’ mental health. After a critical quality appraisal of the eighteen included studies, a thematic synthesis was conducted revealing four main themes; ‘teachers see themselves as care givers’, ‘drawing on teaching skills’, ‘teachers’ beliefs about the intersection between academics, school environment and mental health’ and ‘the system around the teacher helps them to help their students’.
Findings are discussed in relation to existing research, policy and theory using Harvest’s (2018) adapted version of Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological framework (1979; 2006).

Experiences of teachers’ revealed facilitators at the individual level in their beliefs, values and subsequent actions, plus in broader ecological levels where teachers relate to their
students, school environment, colleagues and societal influences. Limitations are discussed and implications for practice, policy and research are made.

Section B
Background: Children and young people are experiencing higher rates of mental health difficulties coupled with increasingly longer waits for support, particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic. In their positions working directly with children and young people, teachers have been positioned to identify and support student mental health concerns. While
teachers have reported feeling willing to support student mental health as part of their roles, they have reported expanding roles, feeling ill-equipped, unconfident and disinclined to play the part of ‘therapist’.

Method: This study used an interpretative phenomenological analysis to explore how UK teachers make sense of their roles in supporting students’ mental health. Eight mainstream secondary school teachers from Southeast England were interviewed.

Results: Three group experiential themes were identified with nine subthemes: 1) "You are helping them to shape their worldview": personal investment in students' development, 2) "You're asking us to do too many things under the same umbrella": the emotional strain of balancing competing demands in a broken system, 3) "It just doesn't feel like it's enough": working through helplessness and disempowerment and finding ways to survive.

Discussion: Findings highlight the importance of supporting teachers’ wellbeing, who often prioritise students’ needs over their own, juggle multiple incompatible priorities, feel restricted in working in valued ways by the educational and wider systems, feel unsupported in their
student mental health support and are at risk of compassion fatigue and moral injury. Implications for clinical psychology and future research are discussed.

Date of Award	2025
Original language	English