Poster #69 - Evidence of Student-Centered Programming as an Important Resource for US High Schoolers’ Mental Health and Adjustment

• In Event: Poster Session 15

Abstract

For US adolescents, there remain pressing concerns on both the contributors and risks to students’ mental health, including student pressures with depressive and anxious symptoms (Racine et al., 2021) and risks of self-harm or suicide (Kõlves & De Leo, 2016). Our Minds Matter (https://ourmindsmatter.org/) is a student-focused non-profit committed to understanding and promoting aspects of student mental health and safety in daily school life, both by working directly with students in extracurricular clubs to build positive relationships, structure for healthy behaviors and strategies (i.e., recognizing opportunities for mindfulness, extending kindness toward others, building comfort for support-seeking behaviors). While this program has been active at dozens of middle and high schools to date, there is room to broaden understanding of ways programming complements or promotes student adjustment and mental health. In line with broader views on extracurricular activities, we expected student involvement with OMM clubs to be linked with greater adjustment. We were particularly interested in ties with outcomes related to OMM’s mission to promote mental health and support-seeking for mental health needs among students.

We surveyed groups of students currently participating in Our Minds Matter (OMM) clubs at three points across the 2021-2022 academic year: late fall; early spring; late spring. Across these time periods, 179 students, representing clubs across parts of Ohio, Virginia, and Maryland responded to computerized surveys about their involvement with and perceived support from OMM clubs, their academic and personal adjustment (i.e., academic self-efficacy; life satisfaction), and their comfort reaching out to others for mental health needs and support. We tested associations of student adjustment with three indicators of club involvement: 1) number of attended club activities; 2) whether students held a leadership role; 3) student perceptions of social support from club members.

Overall, students’ involvement with OMM clubs was associated with positive outcomes among students. For example, when students feel better supported by other club members, they tend to report greater academic and personal adjustment in their lives. Multiple measures of students’ involvement in clubs point to positive benefits for multiple areas of adjustment and mental health (i.e., higher reports of gratitude; higher reports of fundamental need fulfillment; lower reports of home- and peer-based stresses). Further, there was evidence that one of the major aims for Our Minds Matter, promoting students’ comfort reaching out for support with mental health concerns, was positively linked with students’ involvement in clubs.

Given the growing presence of programs like OMM with more school partners and increasing representation across more geographic regions of the US, this is an encouraging set of findings, and a sign of having meaningful impacts on teenagers’ mental health during (common, yet) challenging periods of high school. In line with broader findings on extracurricular activities (i.e., Eccles & Barber, 1999), these clubs are complementing personal assets and the formation of positive community among students. The programming linked to these clubs are also meeting major aims centered on mental health, as students are endorsing lesser stigmas in discussing and seeking or providing support for mental health concerns.

Group Authors

Our Minds Matter

Authors

• Jordan Ashton Booker, University of Missouri - Columbia
  Presenting Author

• Stephanie Langaker, University of Missouri

• Michelle Le, University of Missouri

• Jane Manson, University of Missouri

• Natalia Szarnecki, University of Missouri

• Alicia Mitchell, University of Missouri

• Bayliee Wegman-Roark, University of Missouri