‘Good for Kids’: Children Who have been Homeless Talk about School

2011 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Moore ◽  
Morag McArthur
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Domestic Violence ◽  
Life Events ◽  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
Stressful Life Events ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Parental Mental Health ◽  
Family Breakdown ◽  
Mental Health Difficulties ◽  
Health And Well Being

Children who experience homelessness are at risk of poor health and well-being, and negative social outcomes. They are often exposed to stressful life events, such as domestic violence, parental mental health difficulties and family breakdown. Although many experience difficulties in remaining engaged in school, children report that schools can provide them with a sense of belonging and can help them and their families to link with supports to assist them through their homeless experience. This article reports on a study with children who had experienced homelessness with their families and discusses their thoughts on homelessness and school. It highlights some of their difficulties and worries, but identifies some opportunities for support.

scholarly journals Assessing the Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Nontraditional Students’ Mental Health and Well-Being

2021 ◽  
pp. 074171362110275
Author(s):  
Stephanie J. Babb ◽  
Katrina A. Rufino ◽  
Ruth M. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
College Students ◽  
Nontraditional Students ◽  
Life Events ◽  
Sleep Disturbances ◽  
Stressful Life Events ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Nontraditional Student ◽  
Life Stressors ◽  
Health And Well Being

The current study sought to measure how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the mental health and well-being of college students, particularly nontraditional students. Participants ( n = 321) completed a series of surveys assessing their level of depression, anxiety, sleep disturbances, insomnia, and well-being. Participants also indicated their nontraditional student characteristics, level of resilience, and additional life stressors due to the pandemic. Statistical analyses found that participants reported higher levels of depression, anxiety, sleep disturbances, and insomnia, with corresponding lower levels of well-being across all students, compared with prepandemic levels. Results showed that while nontraditional students indicated an increased number of life stressors during the pandemic compared with their traditional peers, nontraditional students also demonstrated higher levels of resilience. Nontraditional students appear to be more successful at managing stressful life events due to the increased resilience that comes with age and experience, which can better prepare them to persevere and overcome challenges.

scholarly journals Differential predictors of well-being versus mental health among parents of pre-schoolers with autism

Autism ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 136236132098431
Author(s):  
Cherie C Green ◽  
Jodie Smith ◽  
Catherine A Bent ◽  
Lacey Chetcuti ◽  
Rhylee Sulek ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Young Child ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Newly Diagnosed ◽  
Autistic Children ◽  
Parental Mental Health ◽  
Factors Associated ◽  
Mental Health Difficulties ◽  
Health And Well Being

Extensive research has shown elevated mental health difficulties among parents of children with autism compared to other parents. Although several studies have explored factors related to mental health among parents of children with autism, the factors that influence and promote well-being remain poorly characterised. Parents of young, newly diagnosed autistic children may also be particularly vulnerable to stressors that impact mental health and well-being. We examined child-, parent-, and family/socioeconomic factors associated with concurrent mental health and well-being among 136 parents of young children with autism, aged 13–48 months. Parental mental health was predicted by both trait negative emotionality and reported child autism symptoms, while well-being was predicted by parent factors alone, including trait extraversion and mindfulness. Broader child characteristics and family/socioeconomic contextual factors made no significant contribution in regression models. While the mental health and well-being of parents with young autistic children are associated with one another, unique predictors seem to exist. That well-being was uniquely predicted by a modifiable parent characteristic – mindfulness – suggests the potential for early supports to bring direct benefits for parents, in the context of raising a young child with autism. Lay abstract Raising a child with autism has been linked to mental health difficulties. Poor parental mental health is likely influenced by various factors – including child-, parent-, and family/socioeconomic characteristics. However, little is known about what influences and promotes well-being (as opposed to mental health) among parents of young, newly diagnosed autistic children who may be particularly vulnerable. We examined child-, parent-, and family/socioeconomic factors associated with each of mental health and well-being in a sample of 136 parents of pre-school-aged children. Parental mental health was linked to both child- (i.e. autism symptom severity) and parent-related factors (i.e. personality traits reflecting a tendency to experience negative emotions). By contrast, in additional to mental health difficulties, which were linked to well-being, only other parent-related characteristics (and not child characteristics) were related to well-being. These included personality traits reflecting a tendency to be more extraverted/sociable, and also mindfulness. Other child-related and family/socioeconomic context factors (including household income, parental education level) were not linked to parental mental health or well-being in this sample. These results support the idea that poorer mental health and well-being are not simply the opposite of one another. That is, while these two factors were related, they were linked to different personal characteristics. Perhaps most importantly, the link between well-being and mindfulness – a personal characteristic that parents can improve – suggests mindfulness-based interventions may be helpful in directly supporting parental well-being in the context of raising a young child with autism.

scholarly journals Trialogue Meetings: Engaging Citizens and Fostering Communities of Wellbeing Through Collective Dialogue

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liam Mac Gabhann ◽  
Simon Dunne
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Community Response ◽  
Discursive Practice ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Health Service Provision ◽  
Mental Health Difficulties ◽  
Mental Health Service Provision ◽  
Health And Well Being

Community-based participatory approaches are widely recognized as valuable methods for improving mental health and well-being by enabling a greater sense of liberty among participants, through the development of equitable policies and practices, which accommodate a range of diverse perspectives. One such approach, “Trialogue Meetings,” has been found to encourage disclosure and dialogue surrounding mental health, facilitate the growth and development of communities in relation to people’s experience of mental health difficulties, service provider and community response. Emerging in the 1990s because of perceived and felt inequitable relations between people with lived experience of mental health difficulties, family members of people with mental health difficulties and professionals providing mental health service provision. This approach has been shown to successfully reduce stigma and discrimination and improve relations between stakeholders in community and mental health care settings. Trialogue Meetings incorporate Open Dialogue methods to allow multiple stakeholder groups to participate in conversations around a given topic and enable the creation of a common language and mutual understanding. Trialogue Meetings have added benefits of allowing individuals to express themselves better, gain a sense of relationality and community with others and address predetermined power hierarchies with prescribed responses to people’s experiences. In this perspective, we present an outline for Trialogue Meetings as a medium for enhancing wellbeing, providing a transformative empowering process for deliberate discursive practice and engaging citizens through sustained collective dialogue.

scholarly journals Religion, spirituality and mental health

2010 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 63-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Dein ◽  
Christopher C. H. Cook ◽  
Andrew Powell ◽  
Sarah Eagger
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Life Events ◽  
Stressful Life Events ◽  
Religious Faith ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Coping Mechanisms ◽  
Mental Health Clinicians ◽  
Active Engagement ◽  
Full Understanding ◽  
Engagement With Services

SummaryResearch demonstrates important associations between religiosity and well-being; spirituality and religious faith are important coping mechanisms for managing stressful life events. Despite this, there is a religiosity gap between mental health clinicians and their patients. The former are less likely to be religious, and recent correspondence in the Psychiatric Bulletin suggests that some at least do not consider it appropriate to encourage discussion of any spiritual or religious concerns with patients. However, it is difficult to see how failure to discuss such matters can be consistent with the objective of gaining a full understanding of the patient's condition and their self-understanding, or attracting their full and active engagement with services.

Resilience

2011 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 390-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark D. Seery
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Life Events ◽  
Chronic Back Pain ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Care Utilization ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Adverse Life Events ◽  
History Of ◽  
Health And Well Being

When adverse life events occur, people often suffer negative consequences for their mental health and well-being. More adversity has been associated with worse outcomes, implying that the absence of life adversity should be optimal. However, some theory and empirical evidence suggest that the experience of facing difficulties can also promote benefits in the form of greater propensity for resilience when dealing with subsequent stressful situations. I review research that demonstrates U-shaped relationships between lifetime adversity exposure and mental health and well-being, functional impairment and health care utilization in chronic back pain, and responses to experimentally induced pain. Specifically, a history of some lifetime adversity predicts better outcomes than not only a history of high adversity but also a history of no adversity. This has important implications for understanding resilience, suggesting that adversity can have benefits.

scholarly journals Using Bonsai as Nature Assisted Art Psychotherapy

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroll Hermann
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Life Events ◽  
Stressful Life Events ◽  
Psychiatric Hospitals ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Stressful Life ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Preventative Measure ◽  
Art Psychotherapy

Background: Bonsai integrates relaxation, leisure and art therapy into one medium that can have personal, emotional and commercial value and have benefits beyond the therapist’s couch. The art of bonsai, when used as a therapy tool may affect the capacity of the bonsai practitioner to adjust to negative and stressful life events. Objective: The study was initiated to evaluate the benefit of bonsai on the wellbeing of practitioners of the art. Method: 255 bonsai artists participated in a study that examined the effect of bonsai on their well-being. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with bonsai artists. Results: The majority of participants agreed that being able to work on their bonsais affected their moods positively. Discussion: Although bonsai artists did not report better mental health, participants reported an improvement in their mood when working on a bonsai tree. These findings are significant in that it can be especially useful in settings such as psychiatric hospitals, old age homes, orphanages, prisons, etc., as a preventative measure as well as restorative measures in the well-being of patients.

scholarly journals Growing Resilience through Interaction with Nature: Can Group Walks in Nature Buffer the Effects of Stressful Life Events on Mental Health?

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 986 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa Marselle ◽  
Sara Warber ◽  
Katherine Irvine
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Life Events ◽  
Stressful Life Events ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Therapeutic Interventions ◽  
Stressful Life ◽  
Observational Research ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Public Health Promotion ◽  
Main Effects

Nature-based activities have been used as therapeutic interventions for those experiencing stress and mental ill health. This study investigates whether group walks could be a nature-based intervention to foster resilience, by buffering the effects of recent stressful life events on mental health. An observational research design with propensity score-matched samples compared the mental health of individuals who did (Nature Group Walkers, n = 1081) or did not (Non-Group Walkers, n = 435) attend nature group walks. A sub-sample of Frequent Nature Group Walkers (at least once per week, n = 631) was also investigated. Data were analyzed using multiple regression with an interaction term. All analyses were controlled for age, gender, and recent physical activity. Results showed that neither nature group walking, nor doing this frequently, moderated the effects of stressful life events on mental health. Using a main effects model, the positive associations of group walks in nature were at a greater magnitude than the negative associations of stressful life events on depression, positive affect, and mental well-being, suggesting an ‘undoing’ effect of nature group walks. Group walking schemes in natural environments may be an important public health promotion intervention for mental health.

scholarly journals Report on Self-Management of Mental Wellbeing Using Bonsai as an Ecotherapeutic Art Tool

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroll Hermann
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Life Events ◽  
Stressful Life Events ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Mental Wellbeing ◽  
Self Management ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Self Help ◽  
Emotional Value ◽  
Mental Well Being

Objective: The study investigated the benefit of practicing the art of bonsai and the well-being of practitioners. The art promotes relaxation, focus and art therapy that can have personal and emotional value in a self-help setting. When the bonsai tree is used as a healing object, it may improve the ability of the bonsai practitioner to adapt to adverse and stressful life events, such as the present global COVID-19 pandemic. Method: International bonsai artists (n = 255) participated in a study that examined the effect their bonsai had on their mental well-being. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with bonsai artists answering the question: “How has bonsai helped you?”. Results: Most participants acknowledged that being able to take care of their bonsais affected their mood in a positive manner. Discussion: Although the participants did not report overall improved mental health, participants expressed an improvement in their mood when being able to work on a bonsai tree. Conclusion: These findings are significant in that it can be useful in as a preventative and restorative manner in the mental well-being of people who practice the art.

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