Coping Strategies for Supporting High School Students with Psychological Issues under the Collaboration of Schools, Families, and Communities
—A Perspective Based on Mental Health Effectiveness ()
1. Introduction
With the development of modern society, mental health issues are gradually emerging among high school students (Peng, 2024). These problems not only affect students’ learning and quality of life, but may also have a profound impact on their future development (Huang, 2019). Therefore, how to effectively address the psychological issues of high school students has become a focal point of concern for educators, parents, and various sectors of society. This article will explore effective support and coping strategies for high school students with psychological issues from the perspective of “the effectiveness of mental health education”, focusing on the collaborative efforts of schools, families, and communities.
2. Overview of the Effectiveness of Mental Health Education
2.1. The Importance of Mental Health Education
Mental health education refers to the process of helping students understand mental health knowledge, improve their psychological qualities, and prevent and address psychological issues through systematic educational activities (Gao, 2024). Its importance is mainly reflected in the following aspects: 1) Enhancing Students’ Psychological Qualities: Mental health education can help students recognize themselves, boost their self-confidence, and cultivate a positive mindset and emotional regulation skills. 2) Preventing Psychological Issues: By popularizing mental health knowledge, students can identify potential psychological problems and take timely intervention measures to prevent issues from worsening. 3) Promoting Comprehensive Development: Mental health is an essential component of students’ overall development. A good psychological state contributes to better performance in various aspects of learning, social interactions, and life.
2.2. Definition and Evaluation Criteria of Mental Health Education Effectiveness
The effectiveness of mental health education refers to the efficacy and efficiency of mental health education activities in achieving their intended goals. The evaluation criteria include: 1) Improvement in Students’ Psychological Qualities: Whether students can better understand themselves, manage their emotions, and enhance their resilience through mental health education. 2) Change in the Incidence of Psychological Issues: Whether mental health education can effectively reduce the incidence of psychological problems among students. 3) Student Satisfaction and Feedback: The level of student satisfaction with mental health education activities, as well as their subjective feelings and feedback.
3. The Necessity of Collaborative Cooperation among Schools, Families, and Communities
3.1. The Role and Responsibility of Schools
Schools are the primary places where students receive education and grow, and they bear significant responsibility for students’ mental health. Schools should provide professional mental health education resources, establish a comprehensive mental health education system, regularly conduct mental health education activities, and offer individual psychological counseling services.
The school is a core stronghold for psychological safety. However, due to limitations in time, funding, and responsibilities, schools cannot fully accompany students with psychological issues throughout the entire process, nor can they take complete responsibility for it.
3.2. The Role and Influence of Families
Families are the emotional foundation and starting point of the socialization process for students, having a profound impact on their mental health. Parents should pay attention to their children’s psychological state, establish good communication channels with them, provide necessary emotional support, and seek professional help when needed.
The family is an important setting for prevention and early intervention. However, many parents lack sufficient knowledge about mental health, which prevents them from timely identifying and intervening in their children’s psychological issues.
3.3. Social Support and Resource Integration
Various sectors of society, including government, non-governmental organizations, communities, and businesses, should provide support for students’ mental health. This includes resource sharing and integration in various forms, such as financial assistance, professional training, and volunteer services.
Society is a safeguard for psychological safety. It can only play a role in creating an atmosphere, raising awareness, and promoting development. The country has introduced the “Special Action Plan for Comprehensively Strengthening and Improving Student Mental Health Work in the New Era (2023-2025)”, which emphasizes the collaboration of multiple departments, the integration of medical, educational, and physical health, as well as the cooperation among families, schools, and communities to jointly promote student mental health, serving as an excellent example.
4. Support and Coping Strategies for High School Students with Psychological Issues
4.1. Establishing a Comprehensive Mental Health Education
System
To effectively address the psychological issues faced by high school students, it is essential to establish a comprehensive mental health education system within schools. This system should include the following aspects:
Offering Specialized Mental Health Courses: These courses should cover fundamental knowledge of psychology, emotional management skills, interpersonal communication abilities, and more. Through classroom instruction, students can understand the importance of mental health and master basic self-help and mutual-help methods.
Regularly Hosting Thematic Lectures and Workshops: Invite psychology experts, experienced counselors, and other professionals to conduct lectures and workshops at the school, providing guidance and advice on hot topics of concern to students (such as exam anxiety, relationship issues, career planning, etc.).
Establishing Counseling Rooms and Equipping Them with Professionals: Schools should set up dedicated counseling rooms and employ a sufficient number of qualified psychological counselors. These counselors should possess the necessary credentials to provide personalized psychological counseling services to students.
4.2. Strengthening Communication and Cooperation between Home and School
The family is the primary environment for a student’s growth and has a significant impact on their mental health. Therefore, schools should enhance communication and cooperation with families to jointly focus on and support the psychological well-being of students (Song, 2024). Specific measures include:
Regularly Holding Parent Meetings: Schools can organize regular parent meetings to introduce parents to the school’s mental health education programs and progress, while also collecting parents’ opinions and suggestions. Additionally, inviting psychological experts to give lectures for parents can help raise their awareness and coping abilities regarding mental health.
Establishing a Home-School Communication Mechanism: Schools can regularly report to parents about students’ learning and living conditions, especially their mental health status, through phone calls, text messages, and emails. At the same time, parents are encouraged to proactively communicate with the school and share their children’s behavior and changes at home.
Providing Family Education Guidance (Lou, 2023): Schools can offer practical family education resources to help parents better understand and support their children. For example, guidance on how to listen to their children’s feelings, how to handle family conflicts, and how to foster their children’s self-esteem and confidence.
4.3. Utilizing Social Resources to Expand Mental Health Services
In addition to schools and families, various sectors of society are also important support forces. Schools should actively utilize social resources to expand the scope and depth of mental health services. Specific measures include:
Collaborating with Social Organizations: Schools can establish partnerships with mental health institutions, charitable organizations, and other social entities to jointly carry out mental health projects and services. For example, inviting experts from these organizations to give lectures and training at the school or organizing students to participate in mental health activities hosted by these institutions.
Introducing Volunteer Services: Schools can recruit volunteers from the community, especially those with a background in psychology or relevant experience, to provide psychological support and companionship for students. Volunteers can assist schools in conducting mental health education activities and offer one-on-one psychological counseling services to students in need.
Utilizing Media for Promotion: Schools can use social media, campus websites, and other platforms to disseminate mental health knowledge and information, raising awareness among students and parents about mental health. Additionally, these platforms can be used to share the school’s mental health education activities and achievements, enhancing social impact.
4.4. Implementing Individualized Psychological Intervention Plans
For students who are already experiencing psychological issues, schools should develop individualized psychological intervention plans to help them quickly return to a normal state of learning and life (Liang, 2023). Specific measures include:
Assessment and Diagnosis: First, a comprehensive assessment and diagnosis of the student’s psychological condition is necessary. This can be conducted through various methods such as questionnaires, interviews, and behavioral observations. Based on the assessment results, the type and severity of the student’s psychological issues can be determined.
Developing Personalized Plans: Based on the assessment results, the psychological counselor should collaborate with the student and their parents to create a personalized psychological intervention plan. This plan should include specific treatment goals, treatment methods (such as cognitive behavioral therapy, art therapy, etc.), treatment duration, and expected outcomes.
Implementation and Monitoring: During the implementation of the individualized plan, the psychological counselor should closely monitor the student’s progress and adjust the treatment plan as needed. Additionally, regular communication with parents should be maintained to understand the student’s behavior and changes at home. After the treatment concludes, a period of follow-up observation should be conducted to ensure the student’s psychological condition remains stable.
4.5. Strengthening Teacher-Student Interaction and Peer Support
Teacher-student interaction and peer support are crucial factors in maintaining students’ mental health. Schools should take the following measures to enhance this aspect of their work:
Training Teachers in Psychological Competence: Schools should provide training for teachers on mental health knowledge to improve their ability to identify and address students’ psychological issues. At the same time, teachers should be encouraged to focus on interaction and communication with students in their daily teaching, paying attention to students’ emotional needs.
Promoting Peer Support: Schools can organize team-building activities and group discussions to facilitate communication and interaction among students. In these activities, students can share their experiences and feelings, providing mutual support and encouragement. Additionally, schools can select students with good psychological qualities to serve as “psychological committee members” or “peer counselors”, offering assistance to their fellow students as needed.
5. Case Analysis
To better illustrate the practical effects of the aforementioned strategies, let’s look at a specific case. A female student, Xiao Li (pseudonym), at a certain high school experienced emotional distress and declining academic performance due to family changes. Upon learning about her situation, the school immediately initiated an individualized psychological intervention plan:
Assessment and Diagnosis: The psychological counselor conducted an interview and a questionnaire survey with Xiao Li to identify the sources of her psychological issues. They discovered that she exhibited mild depressive symptoms and outlined potential solutions for her psychological problems.
Developing a Personalized Plan: Based on Xiao Li’s specific situation, the counselor developed a comprehensive treatment plan for her, which included cognitive behavioral therapy, relaxation training, and family therapy.
Implementation and Monitoring: Throughout the treatment process, the counselor closely monitored Xiao Li’s emotional changes and academic progress while maintaining close contact with her parents. After several months of effort, Xiao Li’s emotions gradually stabilized (The effectiveness is assessed by evaluating Xiao Li’s emotions and the extent of resolution of her psychological issues through feedback from Xiao Li herself, her parents, and the school), and her academic performance showed significant improvement.
Strengthening Communication and Cooperation with the Family: Meanwhile, the school enhanced communication and cooperation with Xiao Li’s family, providing her with additional emotional support. They also utilized social resources to offer her extra psychological counseling services. Ultimately, through the combined efforts of all parties, Xiao Li successfully overcame her psychological difficulties and regained her confidence and happiness.
This exemplifies how families, schools, and communities clearly define their responsibilities, strengthen communication and collaboration, and achieve high-quality support and safeguarding of students’ mental health through a period of observation and assessment of psychological issues in high school, tracking the outcomes as a model case.
6. Conclusion and Outlook
In summary, from the perspective of the effectiveness of mental health education, collaborative cooperation among schools, families, and communities is an effective approach to addressing the psychological issues faced by high school students. By implementing strategies such as establishing a comprehensive mental health education system, strengthening communication and cooperation between home and school, utilizing social resources to expand mental health services, and implementing individualized psychological intervention plans, we can provide more comprehensive and effective support for high school students with psychological problems.
In the future, we should continue to explore and innovate methods and approaches in mental health education, constantly improving its effectiveness and quality. At the same time, we hope that all sectors of society will pay more attention to and support the mental health of students, working together to cultivate more well-rounded individuals who are both physically and mentally healthy.
Acknowledgements
This Study is Sponsored by the Project “the construction and implementation of a positive psychological school-based system in secondary schools from the perspective of integration of Five Education (GDSP-2024-T002)” supported by Guangdong Provincial Training Center for Primary and Secondary School Teachers.