Teacher Stress and Coping: Exploring Teacher Engagement in Students’ School Mental Health Needs

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

This symposium examines teachers’ engagement in school mental health (SMH) strategies and highlights the ways in which these activities may serve as one mechanism to address teacher stress. Teachers frequently report that students’ behavioral and mental health needs are a cause of their stress, and they feel unprepared to address these needs in the classroom. These conceptual and empirical papers collectively consider how SMH strategies (e.g. assessment, referral, linkage to treatment for students) may provide support to teachers overwhelmed by the behavioral and mental health needs of their students. Examination of how teachers experience student behavioral and mental health needs, along with associated support and professional development opportunities, will be highlighted.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Stress and Coping in Education

Chair

• Elizabeth Levine Brown, George Mason University

Papers

• Teachers and School Mental Health: A Systematic Review - Annahita Ball, University at Buffalo - SUNY; Elizabeth Levine Brown, George Mason University; Aidyn Iachini, The Ohio State University

• Teachers’ Experiences With School Mental Health Collaboration: Implications for Stress and Coping - Elizabeth A Mellin, Binghamton University - SUNY

• Teachers’ School Mental Health Competencies: Expanding the Capacity-Building Framework for Professional Learning - Karen J. Weston, Columbia College

• Mental Health to Support Student Learning: Training Modules for Educators and School-Based Staff - Jill Haak Bohnenkamp, University of Maryland - Baltimore

Discussant

• Karen J. Weston, Columbia College