Browsing by Author "Greus, Eerika"

The aim of this study was to examine how children's and adolescents’ mental health is being promoted at schools. The mental health of children and adolescents is topical and has be-come an important societal factor. Health promotion and symptoms’ prevention are often used to describe the same thing. Good mental health is the foundation for positive develop-ment, learning and integration into society. Earlier studies have shown that schools can play an important role in promoting the mental health of children and adolescents. The research was carried out as a systematic literature review. Six peer reviewed scientific articles were selected to this study. They were all written in English and published between years 2010–2016. In this study I concentrate on what kind of interventions have been done at schools and what results they have achieved. I also look at the occurrence of mental health risks and protections in the interventions made. The interventions focused mainly either on improving the literacy of mental health or reducing the mental health symptoms. The results show that mental health interventions have positive impacts on children’s and adolescents’ state of mental health as well as on mental health literacy. Based on a previous study, the promotion of mental health for children and adolescents should be targeted on the area of emotional, social and cognitive development. All interventions in articles included these areas as well. There are many factors that can affect one’s mental health, and these factors are divided in risk- and protective factors. Five factors were repeated among the interventions and they are social relationships and interaction skills, experiences of success, a safe environment, self-esteem and ability to resolve conflicts. The time spent on the intervention was related to the extent of the results. However, all the studies in the articles caused positive results, so the promotion of mental health in schools clearly show results.