Purpose and Main Findings 45

The current study explored perceptions and experiences of mental health, mental illness, and distress in early adolescents in southwestern Ontario. A mixed-methods approach was used to explore these topics. Results from a school board wide survey as well as focus group discussions with students in grades seven and eight were integrated and interpreted. The study sought to highlight the importance of youth voices in programs, interventions, and preventative measures in child and youth mental health. A number of important findings emerged from the research and are outlined below.

Study 1

Based on descriptive statistics, early adolescent males in southwestern Ontario reported higher levels of worry, sadness, and stress than females. This may be an interesting finding because the literature suggests that females are more vulnerable to symptoms of anxiety and depression than males at this stage. It is an interesting finding because this is a community sample rather than a clinical sample, which suggests that males at this age may be more vulnerable than previously expected. The anonymity of survey responses might have influenced males’ willingness to report such feelings of distress. However, these inferences must be interpreted with caution because the difference between males and females for self-report feelings of distress was only .32. This number might not be as important a difference considering how large the current sample of participants was.

Hierarchical regression analyses also revealed important findings. Results demonstrated that knowing where to get help accounts for less variance in feelings of distress in males than in females, thus knowing where to get help is more important for females than it is for males. This is perhaps because females think about help seeking more than males or are actually more willing to seek help than males.

Youth perceptions of student concern for others account for an additional three percent of the variance in student distress for both males and females. Belongingness accounted for distress slightly more in females than in males. Finally, all variables together account for more distress in females than in males.

It is important that nearly 20 percent of the variance in distress faced by female students can be explained with feelings of belongingness, knowing where to get help, and feeling that students are concerned about each other. It is also interesting that this is

approximately five percent lower for males suggesting that there are other main factors affecting males’ experience of distress at school. Further research is needed to determine what that main difference may be. This finding also suggests that affecting change in knowing where to get help, belongingness, and student concern for others could result in a decrease of student feelings of distress, although this might be truer for females than males.

Study 2

Qualitative data gathered from the focus group discussions provided contextual information and a deeper understanding of early adolescents’ perspectives of mental health, mental illness, and their own distress. First, results indicated that grade sevens and

eights have both inaccurate and accurate knowledge regarding mental health, mental illness, and mental wellbeing. A significant finding of the current study is that the youth, for the most part, did not differentiate between the terms mental health and mental illness. They were, however, able to recognize wellbeing as a term that holds a positive

connotation. Taken together, these findings highlight the importance of language when discussing such topics with students in grades seven and eight. The phrase “mental health” does not represent a state of emotional wellbeing for early adolescents; instead, it holds a similar meaning to “mental illness” for them, which represents someone who is “bad” or “unhealthy”. These findings lend support to the use of language that does not perpetuate stigma around mental health; specifically the phrase, mental wellbeing, appears to be preferable for youth in this age group as they recognize that it holds a positive connotation.

While participants were somewhat uncertain about exact meanings of the phrases, the examples provided demonstrated that they do work from a base of knowledge about mental health. The early adolescents recognized that mental wellbeing reflects a form of mental flexibility in coping with distress. Some of the youth were also knowledgeable about the fact that mental health encompasses thoughts and feelings. These results differ from those found by Armstrong and colleagues (2000), where early adolescents were uncertain about the meaning of the phrases and tended to focus on either the “mental” or “health” parts of the phrase. These findings might be a result of the increasing attention and appreciation of the importance of youth mental health in recent years to which the current participants may have been exposed. Alternatively, the current participants might be more aware of mental health issues and have more personal experience with the topic

than did participants in other research and may reflect a bias in the sample. Participants in the current study listed the names of some specific mental illnesses. However, the males seemed to be more familiar with names than did the females. This too might be a bias in the current sample of participants, as the males appeared to have more personal

experiences with mental health than did the females.

Another main finding of the current study is that early adolescents hold predominantly stigmatizing attitudes about mental health. However, at least two of the youth recognized that mental health is a neutral, descriptive phrase. For the most part, youth believe that mental health or mental illness is something that differentiates a person from others and is associated with a restriction in ability. This might discourage students from seeking help from counsellors or other helping professionals if they perceive them to be associated with individuals seeking help for mental health issues.

As the youth discussed the main sources of distress, it was apparent that their own thoughts and emotions were integral to their experience of mental health and wellbeing. The early adolescents appeared to have limited emotional language and so employed the use of examples and anecdotes to communicate feelings. Negative thoughts about self- efficacy were tied to feelings of distress for these participants. In addition, the

significance of emotion in experiences of mental health emerged from focus group discussions. Certain emotions were associated with occurrences at home and school that resulted in distress. Sadness tended to be the most salient emotion that participants identified associated with distress suggesting that identifying and targeting causes of sadness might be beneficial in alleviating this common experience.

Another theme that emerged from the focus group discussions was that of “action.” The participants described a desire to act on feelings of distress (e.g., “I’ll participate in things even though I’m like sad or mad.”) or an inability to act depending on the intensity of emotion (e.g., “sadness is where you don’t really want to do anything, you just want to sit there and like grieve.”). Most of the youth found distraction to be most useful in alleviating feelings of distress and sought out pleasant activities and entertainment; especially things that made them laugh and resulted in emotions that are opposite to discomfort and distress (e.g., humourous programs and books). Early adolescents also participated in various physical activities to keep themselves well in the face of stress, anger, or sadness. Both males and females displayed aggression in coping with feelings similar to findings by Hampel and Petermann (2005).

Another main finding involved the significance of connection for the early adolescents. Feeling connected appeared to be the most salient factor associated with personal distress for male and female participants alike. Problems with friends and family, feeling alone or unheard, and feeling misunderstood resulted in feelings of sadness for the youth both at home and at school. Connection that was threatened or exploited over social media, as experienced in cyberbullying, was particularly salient for early adolescent females. Connection also served as a solution to feelings of distress in different ways for males and females. Some focus group participants explained that they would talk to friends or family when feeling distressed at home, but did not mention speaking to anyone at school. Others, however, seek out connection at school but did not mention speaking to anyone at home.