Mental Health and Well-being of School Students

– A Survey, 2022 –

The National Education Policy 2020 emphasises students’ mental health and well-being in order to provide holistic development. It also instils in students qualities and life skills that aid in their growth, selfpreservation and sustainable development. Students’ mental health and well-being are known as an important precursor for ensuring optimal performance, both, in and outside school life. Childhood and adolescence (the stages of development, which are majorly spent in school) are critical periods when students develop a long-term mindset towards personal well-being and lifestyle choices. The social and emotional skills, knowledge and behaviours that students learn both inside the classroom as well as in other spaces in the school, help them build capacities of adaptability, adjustment and resilience and sets the pattern for how they will manage their physical and mental health throughout their lives. Strong, supportive and trusting relationships, at home and also in school, provide students with the emotional resources to step out of their ‘comfort zone’ and explore new ideas, engage with understanding varied perspectives and ways of thinking, which are foundational for strengthening one’s mental health and well-being and thus ensuring holistic development among students. It is important to understand that mental well-being is interlinked with all aspects of health—physical, social, emotional and compromising on any of the aspects necessarily has an impact on the rest. The present survey was undertaken to explore the perception of students with regard to their mental health. Mental health is known to be more than just an absence of a disorder and since the population was of school-going students, their mental health was explored from the perspective of mental well-being. The items of the survey gave an opportunity to the students to reflect and introspect their feelings and emotions on aspects that positively or negatively influence their perceptions of well-being. The survey is a bird’s eye view of the perception of students on different aspects related to mental health and well-being. In view of this, the survey provides important leads in the area of mental health and well-being of students that can be the basis for taking up related work in school curriculum, teacher education curriculum, and other areas related to education of children. The respondents of the survey are from different schools across the country, at middle and secondary stages of education. There is a need to take cognizance of the influence of students’ developing qualities, capabilities and experiences in different settings, such as parents, teachers, peers and those in broader social and cultural contexts. Major developmental changes in children during the middle to secondary stages include advances in cognitive capacities and strategies, self-reflective skills, self-regulation abilities, reasoning and logical thinking, perspective-taking, and expanded socialisation. The school and classroom environments also typically change with the stages of education. As the students move from the middle to the secondary stage the changes are enormous both in the social as well as the school contexts. Some of these involve increasing emphasis on academic skills, personal independence, social interactions, peer relationships , career concerns, increased subject specialisations, increasingly structured academic tasks, comparisons with their classmates and evaluation according to performance standards, etc. All these results in their changed roles, responsibilities and relationships, which impact their mental and emotional well-being . As students move through the middle and secondary stages of education, they face various changes and challenges. However, due to individual differences their perception vary. It is important from an educational standpoint to recognise that the variations are seen as ‘differences’ among students and not indications of ‘deficits’. Especially, in view of NEP 2020, it is vital to take pro-active measures and plan psycho-educational interventions based on these differences, which will facilitate all students in maximising their potential. The survey attempted to present the perception of students with regard to aspects of personal self (ability to adapt to changes, trusting others, satisfaction with life, responsibility for doing well in life, body image, perspective taking, lack of confidence), social self (perception of being a happy person, being a leader, trustworthiness, peer pressure) and academic perception (satisfaction with academics, anxiety related to academics, studies, seeking social approval, experience of online learning). It also explored the feelings and emotions experienced and their preferred coping strategies. The survey was undertaken with the aim to gain an understanding of the perception of school students on different aspects of mental health and well-being. The survey was conducted through Google form covering students across gender, grades VI–VIII (middle stage) and IX–XII (secondary stage) and schools across the country. The link for Google form was shared with the Ministry of Education (MoE) for data collection from the states/schools. A total of 3,79,013 students participated in the survey between January to March 2022 from 28 States and 8 Union Territories of the country. To provide a comprehensive understanding on different aspects of the student’s mental health the findings are reported as students’ perception of: (i) their own-selves, (ii) self, as viewed in the social context, (iii) satisfaction with life (personal and school), (iv) emotions experienced, (v) fears and challenges and (vi) strategies for coping and managing their emotions. The data was analysed to portray salient features of the students’ mental health and well-being, as perceived by them. Self-perception is at the core of one’s knowledge about oneself and is personal in nature. It was, therefore, considered as reflecting children’s voices. The overall survey findings demonstrate that the students feel responsible for doing well in their life followed by experiencing satisfaction with school life. A majority of students considered themselves to be trustworthy and do not hesitate in seeking social support, which is a protective factor for maintaining a state of mental well-being. The survey also reports that the most common emotion/feeling experienced is happiness. Frequent mood swings along with feeling anxious about studies, examinations and results was also reported highest among students. The overall data when looked at from a gender perspective reveals that both boys and girls perceive doing well in life as their own responsibility and also report higher satisfaction with school life. Although happiness was the most commonly experienced emotion, boys responded experiencing marginally higher than girls. This was followed by anxiousness, with higher responses by girls than boys. Also higher percentage of girls reported feeling anxious about their studies, examination and results and also reported mood swings, feeling tired, tearful and lonely. As students moved from middle to secondary stage, a visible decline was observed in them feeling confident about their physical appearance, satisfaction with personal and school life, availability of people to share their feelings and experiencing of happiness. At the secondary stage, the students reported feeling more anxious about studies, examination and results. They also reported increased difficulty in concentrating and frequent mood swings. To manage their feelings, both girls and boys chose to talk to friends, followed by sharing with their parents and lastly resolving them on their own. While girls preferred to confide in their parents or resolve by themselves, boys showed more preference towards confiding in their friends. Yoga and meditation, changing the way they think and writing journals were some of the coping strategies adopted, as evident in responses. Specifically, girls’ responses demonstrate changing the way they think as the most employed strategy, suggesting use of the ability of self-reflection. However, boys reported a high preference for yoga and meditation. The perception of respondents who identified themselves as belonging to the third gender, though small in number (N=11), show that most of them are not confident of their physical appearance, and find it difficult to trust others. This is substantiated by most of them reporting nonavailability of support to share and discuss their feelings, though most of them stated that they frequently provide help and support to others whenever they can. It was also reported by a majority of students that they would not be respected if they do not do well in studies and hence, most of them perceived studies as the reason for anxiety. School aspects of the survey showed that the group was satisfied with school life, and perceived doing well in life as their own responsibility. The survey throws light on the present day reality of the wide range of students’ concerns in their personal, emotional, social life, challenges related to educational and career choices, dealing with the stress and anxiety related to competitions, academics, etc. The significance of the survey is that it provides an understanding of factors affecting mental health, more as contributing to well-being of students and, therefore, the findings have implications on efforts being made to promote overall development of the students.  

https://ncert.nic.in/pdf/Mental_Health_WSS_A_Survey_new.pdf