Mental Health and Safety
My cousin, who is in year 12, told me that this was the first time anyone had asked her about her mental health.
Research team member
Our research is centered around the complex landscape of mental health among students and within educational institutions. Our primary aim is to uncover the existing gaps and challenges within this domain.
Understanding this topic holds significant importance because schools play a pivotal role in shaping a student's personality, particularly during the formative years, which encompass the first 12 years of their life. With students spending approximately 7 hours a day, 5 days a week within the school environment, this setting significantly influences their development. It's a place where they encounter diverse personalities and must learn how to navigate these interactions. Moreover, students may come from home environments that don't adequately meet their emotional needs, potentially leading to detrimental and unhealthy behaviors at school.
Throughout these crucial developmental stages, students are particularly vulnerable, with mental health conditions possibly pushing them towards self-harm, self-doubt, or even suicidal thoughts. It's imperative that these students receive the support they need, especially those whose actions may inadvertently harm themselves or others. These students require guidance and a listening ear to understand the reasons behind their behavior.
Our research team brings firsthand experience to this topic, having lived through the school system and encountered mental health challenges personally. We've witnessed the repercussions of inappropriate measures taken to address mental health issues, primarily the negative impact on students' emotional well-being.
At the beginning, I felt that we were focusing on a very minor issue about how the administrators are not reachable. But then we felt it is bigger than we thought, the students don’t know who to reach to and the students can’t talk about it. There is a lack of awareness between the students themselves and therefore it is lacking already from the admins.
Research team member
We began our research focusing on key themes and believed these were the most important questions to ask their peers.
• How safe is the school?
• Who influences the level of safety in the school?
• Did students report unsafe situations to higher administrators? If yes, how so? Was it solved?
• How do you respond to issues you go through in school?
And as any research project goes, we were full of assumptions that would later be clarified by some very succinct realizations.
Assumptions
• Students’ home environment may not be suitable or healthy, and this is reflected in their behavior at school.
• Lack of school awareness on mental health while the school plays a big role in the formation of the student's psyche
Realizations
• Not all schools are facing the same issues, and they vary in terms of how they deal with mental health issues.
• Some school teachers are allies and are advocating for mental health in schools while other teachers are opponents and against it. The latter think school is a place to learn and take exams only.
• Most answers on how comfortable the school space is: majority answered yes comfortable. Their most pressing issue is that reporting a mental health issue in school is not carried over.
• There is a lack of communication between the Ministry and school admins in terms of mental health guidelines.
The data that we collected
127 surveys were distributed to students across Kuwait to understand mental health in public schools in the country. Most of the respondents were female (98%) and all of them were in high school (100%). The survey used a mix of open-ended and closed-ended questions and the advantage of this is that the open-ended questions allowed students to elaborate more. Of course we understand that there are some limitations to the data that we collected. So for full transparency we’ve listed those limitations here. Remember that these are just a starting point for us and you to dig into this critical issue deeper.
Data details and limitations
Limited Diversity:
Although we were able to reach students across 40 different schools and all five governorates, almost all of them were from girls schools (98%). Also, we had more representation from public schools in Hawally (43%) and Al Assimah (31%), and less from Mubarak Al Kabeer (12%), Ahmadi (5.5%), Farwaniya (5.5%) and Jahra (3%).
Small Sample Size:
The number of respondents in the survey is relatively small, which limits the generalizability of the findings.
Key insights from our data
When we asked who our peers go to for help when they face problems at school, 54% of students said “no one”, indicating a lack of support networks for these students at school.
The two main reasons why students feel unsafe in school are academic pressure and harassment by teachers and administration. Other reasons include harassment by students and fear of interacting and socializing with others.
21% of us said that we go to other students for help when we face problems, while 16% said that we go to a social worker or guidance counselor.
Only 5% of respondents say that schools take appropriate action when they report their problems.
Administration and teachers are the two parties students go to the least for support when they face problems, at 11% and 5% respectively.
When asked why they believe their schools do not take appropriate action, students mentioned the school’s indifference to their concerns as the top reason, as well as schools making problems worse, perception of unfair treatment, and fear of punishment.
Our conclusion
Our research uncovers a significant revelation: the challenges faced by students have a profound impact, particularly on their self-esteem. It becomes evident that schools possess the potential to enhance their support systems, thereby mitigating the consequences faced by these students.
To be more effective in this endeavor, schools should encourage students to be more proactive in reporting their issues, fostering an environment where they feel empowered to seek assistance. This initiative should extend to teachers and administration, who are currently the least-approached sources of support. Additionally, schools must improve their ability to address and resolve student problems efficiently.
Conducting this research prompted deep reflections among our team. We noted a significant "missing link" within schools, where students tend to perceive the educational environment solely as a place for academic achievement, overlooking its potential role in ensuring emotional stability. We concluded that this oversight is rooted in schools not fully embracing the responsibility of nurturing students' psychological well-being.