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Global research tells us that youth mental health has been undergoing a rapid decline over the past two decades with about 50 per cent of all lifetime mental health disorders appearing before age 14 years.
Statistics aside, from a developmental standpoint, adolescence is a tough stage due to a multitude of factors: firstly, the physical and cognitive maturation; secondly, the constant swaying between needing support and striving for independence; and lastly, social interactions and perception of self and identity increase in complexity.
“Today’s teenagers are navigating a world of uncertainty.”
In addition to these challenges, today’s teenagers are navigating a world of uncertainty where global warming and the pandemic, international conflicts and political unrest are sweeping certainty off our feet.
Thankfully, in the aftermath of Covid-19, a global movement of increased awareness around wellbeing and holistic health has arisen. Primary, secondary and international schooling associations are mandating that schools adhere to safeguarding and child protection laws and protocols.
“Measuring outcomes and therefore effectively managing student wellbeing can seem a daunting task.”
Accreditation bodies are relying on international schools to produce evidence of their student wellbeing and monitoring solutions. This new demand for evidence is a first step into the right direction but it may leave school leaders and educators wondering:
Where to start? How to assess if the current approach is effective? How to ensure what we do will actually make a difference?
The process of collecting, monitoring, and measuring data is the only surefire way to ensure that student wellbeing strategies are guided by an evidence-based, student-first perspective. However, measuring outcomes and therefore effectively managing student wellbeing can seem a daunting, resource expensive task. The reality is, this can be broken into a three-step process that continues to move in a cyclic nature.
Step 1: Monitor
By monitoring student wellbeing regularly, systematically and over an extended period of time, schools can take their first step to ensuring that their wellbeing strategy is driven from a student-first perspective. So this is where to start. Schools need to first make decisions on how to monitor wellbeing and what to look out for. Here’s what to consider when looking at the how:
1. Self-report or teacher report
Self-report methods rather than parent or teacher reporting methods enable a better understanding of the internal world of the individual. Evidence suggests that, for the most meaningful data, we look to triangulate the student self-reports with observations of teachers or school staff.
2. Online or on paper
Online delivery is easy to use and meets students on a platform they are familiar with; for staff, it is easy to access, provides reliable data and allows for automated results and analysis. Besides, they can be made fun and attractive for students to complete, which is a plus as it can improve engagement results. On the other hand, paper surveys can look attractive as simple to complete but involve printing and distribution costs, are time-consuming to complete, manually collate and analyse.
3. Embed monitoring processes in the school day not as a stand-alone event
4. Informed consent and confidentiality of information
Here’s what to consider when looking at what to monitor:
- Wellbeing targets or priorities for your school
- What does research tell us about adolescent development and wellbeing trends
- What will your students and school community benefit from
Step 2: Measure
Schools can look at three different types of data collection depending on the desired results:
- Regular or ‘pulse’ surveys: these allow to discover regular patterns and longitudinal trends over time so schools can stay on the pulse of students, intervene early or even prevent arising situations. Consideration is needed when deciding the cadence and frequency to avoid survey fatigue and student disengagement
- Benchmarking: usually run once or twice a year, these surveys can help see a school’s performance against a national or local average. However, timing here is key to accuracy (for instance, stress levels may be very different if benchmarking is done just prior to exams)
- Standardised psychometrics: this type of data has a standard administration and evaluation process that must be followed for it to be reliable and valid.
Step 3: Manage
This is the most powerful part of the process as it enables intentional and strategic choices for targeted, effective student support at each level:
- School-wide interventions: time and cost effective, these can allow change in the school climate
- Targeted cohort interventions: specific strength or skill-building interventions can be deployed to help a group of students that have been identified through monitoring
- Individual interventions: intensive support for students who need specialised care and intervention.
This three step process is cyclical, it does not stop. We can use this process to guide strategic, curriculum, funding and pastoral care decisions. Wellbeing is not stagnant so our initiatives and processes should match this dynamic. At the time of change we live in paired up with adolescence, student wellbeing strategies need to be constantly evolving. We monitor, measure, manage then use that data to change or repeat how we monitor, measure and manage.
Ilia Lindsay is a registered psychologist specialised in child and family psychology. She has spent her career working in child and adolescent mental health services both in hospital and community settings. She is now psychology lead at Komodo where she supports schools in their data-driven wellbeing solutions.
Get in touch to find out how Komodo can help your school!
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