Significance of the Current Research

Findings from this research project have significant implications for the method and practice of mental health promotion in schools. The study will help enable local health and education systems to plan, tailor and evaluate school mental health and wellbeing programmes based on evidence. In its intention to align the school environment and adolescent community with mental health promotion and prevention, the current project, in collaboration with the school, designed a specific mental health and wellbeing promotion programme for adolescent males. Such amalgamation not only enriches and deepens how the school community interprets and understands male adolescent positive mental health, but also provides us with a greater opportunity to understand and improve those processes.

This study also reflects on the relevancy of ‘real world’ intervention by conducting research that will generate ‘practice-based evidence’ (Green, 2006). As mental health interventions and mental health and wellbeing promotion programmes begin to be implemented in schools, the current research will help by providing a platform to support and study the processes and structures required for effective school mental health programmes delivered to adolescents.

The study is a significant endeavour in promoting school satisfaction awareness among students. By understanding the needs of the students and the benefits of quality mental health promotion programmes and education, the current research also gains a deeper understanding of the needs and mental health issues among Australian male adolescents. This research, therefore, informs practice by providing a framework for schools and classroom teachers to administer and deliver youth-centred programmes specifically designed for male adolescents and their mental health issues.

Moreover, the research provides recommendations on how to value students as part of the process in developing mental health programmes and support for students during the transitory time of puberty, as they are taking a large part in the overall development and evaluation of proposed programme. This is significant as this approach capitalised on student-level data through the use of the current methodology.

This is clearly one of the most innovative aspects of the study as it enables participant response beyond what current retrospective methods offer. Thus, the research extends the methodological opportunities available to educational and school mental health and wellbeing research.

Finally, as the research base of effective programmes begins to grow, it is also important to determine elements of replicability to identify how these programmes can be transferred to different schools, school systems and populations of students, and to identify barriers to successful implementation. Therefore, utilising the concept of mental health provides the opportunity to draw together separate areas of research in designing and evaluating comprehensive and interconnected approaches to mental health promotion in secondary schools.

3.4 Conclusion

The mental health and wellbeing of adolescents’ has been brought to the forefront of research and health-related initiatives in recent years. These are explored through four reciprocal themes that are illuminated within the background literature in Chapter 2 and Chapter 3:

1) Adolescence is a time of great change, and factors that are detrimental to mental health during these pivotal years should not go unnoticed.

2) Mental health and wellbeing problems often manifest within the school setting.

Left unattended, these concerns may impact academic, familial, and social realms of life, therefore early intervention and prevention is necessary.

3) There is a gap in the research literature pertaining to school-based programmes for adolescent males that cater for their unique development and expression of mental health and wellbeing issues. In the light of the growing research suggesting schools play an integral and beneficial role, it is important that this framework also caters for

adolescent males. The development of school-based programmes to support male adolescent mental health issues are essential to better serve this vulnerable population.

4) Mental health and school collaboration is needed to align the school environment and adolescent community with mental health promotion and prevention. This intention will enrich and deepen how the school communities interpret, understand and support male adolescent positive mental health.

Chapter 2 primarily concerned itself with adolescent mental health and wellbeing, particularly among young males, reinforcing its complex and multifaceted nature.

Awareness of such patterns and risk factors among male adolescents is important, not only on an individual basis, but also with respect to the design of school-based programmes. The critical review of the approaches to mental health promotion in Chapter 3 identified the need for school-based mental health interventions and the integral role mental health promotions in schools play in shaping the health of male adolescents. This chapter identified the lack of research into school-based programmes that cater for male adolescent unique development and expression of mental health and wellbeing issues, and the limited involvement of the school and school psychologists in this process. The current study attempts to bridge this gap currently experienced in the dissemination of mental health and wellbeing programmes and referral for male adolescents in school contexts. This will be ascertained through comparisons of male and female adolescent worries and stresses, body image and self-image, analysis of a school-based and collaboratively designed programme for male adolescents including longitudinal results, and the impact of school councillors in the identification, referral and treatment of high-risk males with mental health and wellbeing problems. The crucial nature of such a school-based mental health and wellbeing programme that assesses the impact, acceptability and potential efficiency for adolescent boys, is central to the goals and aims of the current project.

In Chapter 3 various approaches to mental health and wellbeing interventions and the significance and effective elements of school-based programmes have been outlined.

In light of the critique offered above and current findings, the evidence suggests that successful school-based mental health and wellbeing promotion programmes that positively change adolescent mental health and wellbeing can be designed specifically

for young males in collaboration with major stakeholders. Taking this into consideration, the methodological approach underpinning this research is outlined further in the following chapter.