# Teacher mental health literacy and its effects on helping behaviors for students with mental health problems

## TL;DR

This study explores how Japanese teachers' mental health literacy affects their willingness to help students with mental health issues.

## Contribution

The study provides empirical evidence on how teacher confidence and mental health literacy influence their helping behaviors toward students with internalizing problems.

## Key findings

- Most teachers (80.2%) reported dealing with students showing internalizing problems.
- Over half of the teachers (57.8%) reported students answering 'not feeling well' when asked about their feelings.
- Teachers with higher confidence in helping depressive symptoms were more likely to recognize students in distress.

## Abstract

School teachers are expected to support students with mental health problems. However, few studies have examined actual helping behaviors of teachers for the students. This study aimed to investigate the behaviors of Japanese teachers for students experiencing internalizing problems (e.g., depression/anxiety).

In 2020, teachers (n = 465) from 48 Japanese schools (primary/junior high/senior high) answered a self‐administered questionnaire asking about: (a) the number of students in their homeroom class who seemed to have internalizing problems during the last 2–3 months, (b) whether they asked these students how they had been feeling lately, and (c) the number of students who answered “not feeling well.” Mental health literacy (MHL) in teachers was also assessed.

Most of the teachers (80.2%) reported that they dealt with one or more students who seemed to have internalizing problems during the last 2–3 months. Among these teachers, 94.7% had asked at least some of the students how they had been feeling, and over half of the teachers (57.8%) reported that at least one of the students answered “not feeling well.” Teachers who had confidence in helping students with depressive symptoms were more likely to recognize students who were “not feeling well” (p = 0.04).

Teachers appear to be willing to help students with mental health problems when they recognize symptoms of the problems. Future studies will benefit from more closely examining whether improving confidence in teachers through MHL training increases students' willingness to disclose mental health problems to teachers, an important step in the prevention/treatment of these problems.