School counselling has become the most prevalent form of emotional support for pupils in schools (Cooper, 2013). Counselling is typically seen as a form support for people who experiencing high levels of emotional distress which is affecting their ability to function in daily life (NHSb, 2016).
The experiences of the participants suggest that their schools relied on the use of school counsellors to provide emotional support for pupils. Thus support
appeared geared towards supporting specific people identified as having mental health difficulties rather than the promoting the mental well-being of all pupils.
In spite of this apparent reliance on school counsellors, there appears an
increasing awareness amongst practitioners who work with young people of the need for young people to receive on-going support with their emotional
development (Gottman & DeClaire, 1997; Weare, 2004). Hart, Blincow, and Thomas (2016) assert that young people need support to enable them to become more resilient. Resilience they argue encompasses being able to deal with
adversity and ‘bounce back’ in the face of challenging circumstances.
Hart et al. (2016) have created a “Resilience framework” detailing five factors which they believe promotes resilience in young people. These factors they have named “basics’” ‘belonging’, “learning”, “coping” and “core self”. They include features such as feeling safe, having adequate housing and being free from discrimination in addition to features such as enjoying positive relationships with others, having a sense of responsibilities and obligations, being part of a learning environment which celebrates achievements and having a sense of identity and hope. The framework provides a potential structure to be used in schools to support the emotional development of young people.
Within the resilience framework attributes such as ‘being brave’ and of being able to put on ‘rose-tinted glasses’ are seen as desirable and as protective factors for resilience (Hart et al., 2016). However, there is arguably a risk that the focus on resilience in schools happens at the expense of adults acknowledging the
challenging contexts and cultures in the lives of young people and of providing them with relevant support. There is also a risk that the framework is used in relation to individual young people, placing the onus on them to become more resilient rather than being used to make systemic changes that support the resilience of all young people at school.
Attributes such as being able to “self-soothe” and a being able to “have a laugh” are also identified as protective factors for resilience (Hart et al., 2016). However, Stolorow (2016) highlights that a person’s distress can be exacerbated when they do not have space to express their thoughts and emotions. He believes that this is particularly relevant for emotions which tend to be perceived negatively such as anger, fear and disappointment.
Several of the participants in this study indicated that they felt emotionally stifled at school and they experienced greater levels of distress as a result of
suppressing their emotions. Thus there is arguably a case for young people to not only learn the skills to self-soothe and regulate their emotions but also to have channels at school to express a range of emotions in safe and socially acceptable ways.
5.5 Conclusion
The participants in this study experienced many different challenging contexts including difficulties related with poverty, domestic violence, parental illness, bereavement and sexual harassment. In addition many of the participants felt under pressure to conform to gendered stereotypes. The participants believed support from adults to be limited and in many cases inadequate. For those who externalised their difficulties, adults appear to have interpreted participants’ challenging behaviour with mental health difficulties. As a consequence this group of participants were referred mainly by teaching staff to the mental health specialist on site; the school counsellor/psychotherapist. For participants who internalised their difficulties, support from adults was less forthcoming.
The majority of the participants in this study connected their emotional distress to the challenging events and contexts in their lives. The lack of support they experienced appeared to exacerbate their feelings of distress and there seemed to be few opportunities for the participants’ opinions, perspectives and experiences to be heard by adults, particularly those at school. As a consequence it seemed difficult for the participants to receive support that was relevant to their experiences.
The medical model of mental health is arguably the dominant model within the UK. In accordance with this model, focus is geared towards the individual and to particular behaviours which are deemed to be indicative of mental health
There is little acknowledgement of the social contexts which embed a person’s life and which impact on their development and well-being. Kinderman (2014) and Timimi (2014) have argued that the medical model has contributed towards a pathologising culture in which “normal” responses to challenging circumstances are being increasingly treated as though they are indicative of mental health difficulties. Kinderman (2014) and Timimi (2014) have further argued that the use of diagnostic categories that underpin the medical model can result in people’s behaviour becoming de-contextualised.
The government has given schools the responsibility of identifying and supporting pupils with mental health difficulties. The findings of this study suggest that in undertaking this role schools are utilising a medical model of mental health. As a consequence, support is geared towards the mental health difficulties of individual pupils rather than on the promotion and maintenance of mental well-being of all pupils.
The findings of this study further suggest that as a result of their distress being identified with mental difficulties the behaviour of the participants became decontexualised. Thus support appeared to focus on the management of particular aspects of their behavour rather than identifying and exploring the contexts and experiences that were causing the participants’ distress.
Within the last few decades there has been a rise in the number of young people self-harming, developing eating disorders and a range of other unhealthy coping strategies (Lee, 2015; Selfharm UK, 2016). However, the emotional distress of young people appears to have been associated with mental health difficulties rather than being associated with having to navigate challenging and complex social contexts. This association has arguably resulted in the obscuration of social challenges which young people experience. The lack of structures to enable the experiences and opinions of young people to be heard has arguably exacerbated this obscuration.
The UK is currently experiencing an economic downturn. As a consequence, many families are working longer hours and bringing home less money. Many people have also had to cope with redundancies. In addition, many resources within the community which families have hitherto accessed and depended upon, have had their budgets cut or have been shut down placing further burdens upon families. This economic climate has arguably had a profound affect on families and young people impacting upon the time that they are able to spend together and the money which they have for basic living essentials and leisure activities.
In addition, the social contexts surrounding young people currently appear to be becoming increasingly complex as a result of commercial markets which are targeted at them and as a result of difficulties associated with the content of the internet and the prevalence and use of social media applications. These social contexts have arguably resulted in a blurring of the boundaries between
As a consequence, young people are having to negotiate a range of complex social contexts and contradictory values and messengers being communicated to them.
Within this time of economic and cultural change, young people arguably need more targeted interventions to help them navigate these contexts. Thus rather than diagnosing their distress with categories of mental illness, young people could be offered support which is relevant to the social contexts which embed their lives.
Whilst there appears to be an increasing focus in schools on developing the resilience and emotional literacy skills of young people, concepts of “resilience” and “emotional literacy” seem to be typically perceived as abstract concepts as though these skills can be developed in young people regardless of their life experiences and social contexts. However, it could be argued that the qualities of resilience and being emotionally literate are largely context specific. Thus
resilience for a young woman who regularly faces sexual harassment from boys in her school is arguably different from resilient behaviour in relation to exam stress.
If support services are to be improved for young people, it is a paramount that structures in schools and communities are created to enable the voices and experiences of young people to be heard. Their experiences could then be used to inform the content and structures of interventions.
Further changes are arguably needed in the UK education system to enable an increasing number of young people to view their experiences at school as being relevant to their lives. Such changes could involve schools equally prioritising the social and emotional development of young people in addition to their attainment in national curriculum levels and attainment tests. Consideration could also be given to how the school ethos impacts upon the well-being of pupils and staff.
A recent survey indicated that young people within the UK are amongst the
unhappiest young people in the world (Weale, 2015). It seems therefore that there is an urgent need for the content, delivery and accessibility of support frameworks to be re-modelled in order that young people can access support that is
meaningful, relevant and effective for them. This arguably needs to involve a re- appraisal of many of the ideas that underpin dominant discourses in mental health and education.