Centering Youth Perspectives on Policy Supports and Barriers to Equity-Minded School Mental Health Change

• In Event: Transformative School-Based Mental Health: Coordinating Services, Accessing Sustainable Funds, and Centering Youth Voice

Abstract

This paper is based on data from a digital, cross-community Youth Participatory Action Research Project in which youth developed policy recommendations for improving systems of school mental health. Youth collected data on their local policy contexts to understand which factors would support their desired policy changes and which factors would be barriers to those changes. I analyzed data on the factors that youth identified using a framework on equity minded policy change to understand what factors emerged as most salient to the group of youth researchers.

Reyes Cruz (2008) advocated for an approach to research that centers producing knowledge “with” those whom we are researching. Students are often considered “subjects” of research instead of co-producers of knowledge. Centering youth perspectives on this topic is rooted in the idea that people, who are often considered “subjects” of academic research, knowledge of the communities they exist in which is just as valuable as academic knowledge (Torre, 2009).

12 youth activists from communities across the country analyzed qualitative policy data from each of their own communities. Each youth researcher identified evidence of local factors that would support their desired policy changes in their communities and local factors would be barriers to those changes. They shared those factors with the larger group in a Google spreadsheet. I first conducted organizational coding to organize policy factors into “barriers” and “supports.” Then, I conducted close open coding to identify common themes in the data. Last, I conducted theoretical coding, where I applied an equity minded framework to sort factors into technical, normative and political categories. Technical forces refer to technical policy dimensions (Oakes et al., 1993). Normative forces are ideas about learning and educability, drawing on ideas of what is good (Oakes et al., 1993, p. 472). Political forces refer to distributions of power (Oakes et al., 1993).

Technical supports included the existence or expansion of mental health services in schools. For example, one student talked about a partnership her district had with online therapy providers. Political supports included instances in which youth’s state or education agencies allocated funding toward expanded mental health resources. Technical barriers included challenges related to staffing, training, and the availability of mental health services in schools. Youth highlighted evidence that their schools were struggling to fill teacher positions and mental health professional positions in schools. Normative barriers were varied and included evidence of a lack of trusting relationships in their schools. Political barriers included evidence that decision makers were not listening to the concerns of students. Students also named political barriers related to the allocation of funding, which in many cases focused on policing instead of mental health.

There are benefits of understanding what youth find important about this issue. First, youth have valuable ideas about how policy contexts should change to better promote their mental health. Their ideas can help us better solve policy problems related to school mental health. Second, understanding what matters to youth can help adult decisionmakers show youth that they care about their ideas and concerns.

Author

• Kate Somerville, University of Virginia