Promoting School Safety, School Climate, and Student Mental Health

Author(s):  
Amy Jane Griffiths ◽  
Elena Diamond ◽  
Zachary Maupin ◽  
James Alsip ◽  
Michael J. Keller ◽  
...  

The reduction of school violence requires a coordinated effort that enhances school climate and improves the sense of safety on campus. This chapter addresses the related topics of school violence, school safety, and school climate; provides an overview of the interactions among these constructs; and illustrates how they are directly linked to student mental and emotional well-being. A multidisciplinary approach is described that addresses these constructs, which are grounded in a school safety model that provides a foundation to promote students’ mental health. The process for moving toward action includes selecting an appropriate model for organizing intervention efforts, building a multidisciplinary team, developing a plan for assessment, and creating a systematic process for intervention implementation. Finally, a case study is provided to illustrate how a school district can interpret and implement these key components in the real world.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 8712
Author(s):  
Mehdi Rezaei ◽  
Doohwan Kim ◽  
Ahad Alizadeh ◽  
Ladan Rokni

The stressful lifestyle of urban dwellers has increased the demand for green-based leisure activities; considering such growing demand, this paper investigated the potential mental health benefits of agritourism activities. The assessments were based on a questionnaire survey of two groups: visitors of agritourism sites around Seoul and a control group staying home (n = 200). In addition to measuring the participants’ well-being level and stress level, they were also asked to self-estimate their immediate mood after their activities of the day. The analysis was conducted with R version 4.1.0 to explore the potential relationships and interactions between the activity of the day, perceived psychological factors, and the immediate emotional outcomes. Findings reveal that visitors to the agritourism sites perceived considerable improvement in their immediate mood compared to the control group who stayed home. Results indicate a significant interaction between self-reported wellbeing and agritourism activities and a combined effect on improved mood. Therefore, agritourism can potentially be a resource for a positive mood boost and improved mental health. The suggested practical implications can be applied as strategies to evoke the feeling of more connection to the agritourism activities and raise awareness of potential mental health outcomes.


Author(s):  
Dewey Cornell ◽  
Brittany Crowley

Schools are one of the safest places for young people, but high-profile cases of school shootings have driven schools to engage in reactive practices such as expensive security measures and zero tolerance discipline that have had unintended negative effects. More proactive practices are needed to prevent violence, with particular attention to the commonplace types of aggression such as bullying and harassment that have serious consequences for students and can be the seedbeds for more severe violence. Overall, schools should place greater emphasis on multitiered prevention strategies that build a school climate characterized by high academic and behavioral expectations for students in the context of supportive relationships. Schools should also adopt threat assessment as a systematic approach to evaluating and helping troubled students. The overarching idea is that making schools safe and supportive environments that foster student well-being and achievement is vital for the prevention of violence.


2007 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 2156759X0701000
Author(s):  
Jeffrey A. Daniels ◽  
Mary C. Bradley ◽  
Daniel P. Cramer ◽  
Amy Winkler ◽  
Kisha Kinebrew ◽  
...  

The authors interviewed a school counselor to determine her response to an armed hostage event in a classroom. They found that her primary interventions took place after the perpetrator had been taken into custody, through counseling students who had been in the room, contacting professionals from the school district and the local mental health facility for help, and coordinating these other professionals. Results are presented in light of the crisis intervention literature. Finally, implications for professional school counselors are discussed.


Fostering the Emotional Well-Being of Our Youth: A School-Based Approach is an edited work that details best practices in comprehensive school mental health services based upon a dual-factor model of mental health that considers both psychological wellness and mental illness. In the introduction, the editors respond to the question: Are our students all right? Then, each of the text’s 24 chapters (five sections) describes empirically sound and practical ways that professionals can foster supportive school climates and implement evidence-based universal interventions to promote well-being and prevent and reduce mental health problems in young people. Topics include conceptualizing and framing youth mental health through a dual-factor model; building culturally responsive schools; implementing positive behavior interventions and supports; inculcating social-emotional learning within schools impacted by trauma; creating a multidisciplinary approach to foster a positive school culture and promote students’ mental health; preventing school violence and advancing school safety; cultivating student engagement and connectedness; creating resilient classrooms and schools; strengthening preschool, childcare and parenting practices; building family–school partnerships; promoting physical activity, nutrition, and sleep; teaching emotional self-regulation; promoting students’ positive emotions, character, and purpose; building a foundation for trauma-informed schools; preventing bullying; supporting highly mobile students; enfranchising socially marginalized students; preventing school failure and school dropout; providing evidence-based supports in the aftermath of a crisis; raising the emotional well-being of students with anxiety and depression; implementing state-wide practices that promote student wellness and resilience; screening for academic, behavioral, and emotional health; and accessing targeted and intensive mental health services.


2015 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kris Tunac De Pedro ◽  
Ron Avi Astor ◽  
Tamika D. Gilreath ◽  
Rami Benbenishty ◽  
Ruth Berkowitz

Research has found that when compared with civilian students, military-connected students in the United States have more negative mental health outcomes, stemming from the stress of military life events (i.e., deployment). To date, studies on military-connected youth have not examined the role of protective factors within the school environment, such as school climate, in the mental health and well-being of military-connected adolescents. Given this gap in the research on military adolescents, this study draws from a large sample of military and non-military secondary adolescents in military-connected schools ( N = 14,943) and examines associations between school climate, military connection, deployment, and mental health. Findings show that multiple components of school climate are associated with a lower likelihood of depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation and increased likelihood of well-being among students in military-connected schools, after controlling for student demographics, military connection, and deployments. The authors conclude with a discussion of school climate interventions for military-connected youth.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kartiki Porwal

Individuals who are socially connected are happier and healthier than their more isolated counterparts. Over the past few decades, researchers have established that both the quantity and quality of our social relationships are unequivocally important when it comes to our physical and mental health, and our risk of mortality. Although the link between social relationships and mental health is well established in a couple, we have only just begun to identify explanations for this link. Recently, social scientists have discovered that the link between social relationships and health is explained by our behaviours (e.g., smoking, exercise, diet), various psychosocial factors (e.g., social support, mental health, cultural norms), and physiological processes. Aggression in marital relationship is defined as a manipulative, physical or non-physical form of aggression meant to negatively impact the development of relationship by social exclusion or harming the social status of a victim by spreading or behaving negatively. Research findings suggest that even infrequent experiences with relational aggression victimization are associated with lower subjective well-being such as depression, loneliness, and positive affect. This case study investigates the existence of relational aggression in a couple and the relationship between relational aggression and own subjective well-being. The participant in the study is married and from nuclear family. The study tries to investigate aggression level through the case study method and relaxation, yoga, meditation techniques used which was used to resolve the aggression and helps to achieve well being.


2001 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 45
Author(s):  
Catherine H. Glascock ◽  
Diane Taylor

Despite more than a decade of research on bottom-up school change, the principal/ superintendent relationship continues to be studied primarily as a traditional flow of power from the top down. There is little research that considers the proposition that power vested in principals can be exercised upwardly within the school district hierarchy in the form of independence from and influence on the superintendent. Given the lack of research on these phenomena, it is not surprising that we could find no studies that explore the effects of hierarchical independence and influence on school climate. The present study investigates both. Two schools form the basis of this comparative case study. The schools were chosen based on scores obtained through the OCDQ and TAI instruments. The first school is selected for its high scores on both instruments and the second school is selected based on average scores on the OCDQ and the TAI. Both schools are in the same school district and a brief description of that district begins the discussion. Individual case study findings as well as a comparison of the two case studies follow.


For most people, well-being is understood and experienced at a local scale. Their community or city is where housing, green spaces, social cohesion, mental health, and many other vital elements of well-being play out in daily life. Local governments and other stakeholders also tend to be the most willing and able to try innovative approaches. Local wins, in turn, inform and inspire action in other areas and often build to national change....


Author(s):  
Ian Rivers

Abstract The role of the bystander is not one that is easily understood in the anti-bullying literature. Roles within the unofficial hierarchy of the schoolyard and playground overlap considerably, and each role has its own social dynamic that brings with it a shifting behavioral landscape that affects every student. In this article, the mental health correlates of three categories of bystander are explored: the co-victim, the isolate, and the confederate. Each category of bystander has its own characterizations and mental health correlates. Reports of post-traumatic stress, internalized hostility, substance use, and suicide ideation are discussed with reference to studies involving witnesses of family abuse, community and school violence as well as bullying. It is argued that bystanders are the key to challenging bullying in schools, and their mental health and well-being is pivotal to the effectiveness of anti-bullying interventions.


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