a. Rise in mental disorders in children and adolescents since 1990s
b. 8-20% of adolescents yougher than 18 have a mental disorder
c. 11.7% of Israli adolecsents have a mental disorder
d. Posistive psychology may improve well-being and mental health
i. There is a shortage of empirically validadted positive psychology intervention ii. This study will contribute to ongoing scholarship in the area of school-based prevention of mental health problems by reporting the longitudinal effects of a novel positive psychology intervention to a middle school (Shosani, A. Steinmetz S. 2013)
2. A Dual Perspective of Mental Health at Schools
a. Increase in pressure to improve achievements through high academic accountablilty
i. Began with …show more content…
20% of 16-17 year olds have anxiety or mood disorder, disruptive d/o or substance abuse
2. 25% of American students report unhappy or terrible existence or high levels of negative school / family experiences
3. rate of mental health appears similar in Isreal
a. 11.7% of adolescents have a mental disorder
c. early 20th century studies indtify health and illness as two extremes
i. now we have a better understanding of well-being and ill-being ii. the absence of mental health does not imply high levls of positive mental health
d. Subjetive well-beling
i. Consisting of a cognitive and affective compontnet ii. Positive association between subetive well-being and their academic functioning, social competence, physicl health, achievement and behavior in school iii. High levels of subjective well-being correlate with better parental, teacher and peer relationships.
3. Promoting Posisitive Mental Health in Schoolchildren
a. Factors contributing to students subjective well-being
i. Positive emotions ii. Gratitude iii. Hope iv. Goal setting
v. Character strength
b. Daily exercises that can increase subjective well-being such as
i. Writing gratitude diaries ii. Writing about intensely positive …show more content…
Statsitical Analyses
i. Two-Level Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HML)
7. Results
a. Mental Health Status at the Beginning of the Study
i. Students in poverty repored high levels of distress, and anxiety ii. Students in single parent households reported high depression and anxiety iii. Males showed lower levels of depression and lower interpersonal sensitivity than females iv. Males showed increase in anxiety than females
v. Students whose families were below poverty or singles parent reported lower levels of self-esteem, optimism and life satisfaction but increased self-efficacy vi. Males reported high self esteem but lower self efficacy, optimism and life satisfaction
b. Changes in Mental Health Over Time
i. Participants in the intervention reported fewer mental health symptoms over time ii. Participants in the control group reported increase in mental health symptoms iii. Participants in the intervention reported a decrease in psychological distress, symptoms of depression and anxiety, and interpersonal sensitivity iv. Increase in self esteem and self efficacy in intervention students
v. Increase in optimism over time for intervention group
8. Discussion
a. Study measure changes in mental