Public health approaches for identifying and responding to mental health difficulties amongst children and adolescents
type: CreativeWork
description: Summary Public health approaches for identifying and responding to mental health difficulties amongst children and adolescents Emma Soneson Mental health difficulties amongst children and adolescents are a significant societal concern requiring urgent attention and action, and public health approaches may be useful in reducing their incidence, prevalence, and impact. Schools are increasingly featured within UK policy as a key setting for addressing mental health difficulties, yet school staff often do not feel adequately prepared for this role. In this dissertation, I aimed to explore what role schools can play within the public health approach to child and adolescent mental health difficulties; determine whether schools can improve the identification of and response to mental health difficulties; and identify the ‘key ingredients’ of an effective, feasible, and acceptable school-based approach to student mental health. The introductory chapter provides an overview of the scope, aetiology, and impact of mental health difficulties amongst children and adolescents; describes the public health framework that supports the research in this dissertation; and highlights the role of schools within the public health approach to child and adolescent mental health difficulties. The first two empirical chapters present two studies that examined self-report data from the OxWell Student Survey to better understand English school students’ access to and perceptions of school-based and other mental health support. The first of these studies determined whether experience of adversity is related to access to and perceived need for mental health support amongst secondary school students. The second study explored whether various aspects of students’ school experience and their impressions of their wider school culture influence their perceptions of school-based mental health support. The next two chapters describe two studies aimed at improving UK primary schools’ response to pupil me…
abstract: Summary Public health approaches for identifying and responding to mental health difficulties amongst children and adolescents Emma Soneson Mental health difficulties amongst children and adolescents are a significant societal concern requiring urgent attention and action, and public health approaches may be useful in reducing their incidence, prevalence, and impact. Schools are increasingly featured within UK policy as a key setting for addressing mental health difficulties, yet school staff often do not feel adequately prepared for this role. In this dissertation, I aimed to explore what role schools can play within the public health approach to child and adolescent mental health difficulties; determine whether schools can improve the identification of and response to mental health difficulties; and identify the ‘key ingredients’ of an effective, feasible, and acceptable school-based approach to student mental health. The introductory chapter provides an overview of the scope, aetiology, and impact of mental health difficulties amongst children and adolescents; describes the public health framework that supports the research in this dissertation; and highlights the role of schools within the public health approach to child and adolescent mental health difficulties. The first two empirical chapters present two studies that examined self-report data from the OxWell Student Survey to better understand English school students’ access to and perceptions of school-based and other mental health support. The first of these studies determined whether experience of adversity is related to access to and perceived need for mental health support amongst secondary school students. The second study explored whether various aspects of students’ school experience and their impressions of their wider school culture influence their perceptions of school-based mental health support. The next two chapters describe two studies aimed at improving UK primary schools’ response to pupil me…
author: Soneson, Emma
language: eng
keywords: adolescents, children, mental health, public health, schools
license: https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/
date published: 2022-08-09
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:32:57Z
provider: Cambridge University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Cambridge

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.17863/CAM.92625