{"id":3439,"date":"2019-08-08T11:44:10","date_gmt":"2019-08-08T01:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/ccch\/?p=3439"},"modified":"2020-12-08T10:05:08","modified_gmt":"2020-12-07T23:05:08","slug":"childrens-mental-health-an-asset-for-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/ccch\/2019\/08\/08\/childrens-mental-health-an-asset-for-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"Children\u2019s mental health \u2013 an asset for learning"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>An MCRI led study expands our understanding of what early skills help children to thrive at school, showing positive mental health is an asset for learning<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Boosting academic learning is a key strategy for improving children\u2019s health, development and life opportunities, especially for children who start school developmentally behind their peers.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, academic skills are declining in Australian schools. For example, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.acer.org\/au\/ozpisa\">Programme for International Student Assessment<\/a> trends show that over the past decade, the skills of Australian children have been <a href=\"https:\/\/research.acer.edu.au\/cgi\/viewcontent.cgi?article=1023&amp;context=ozpisa\">declining in the areas of reading, science, and mathematics<\/a>. Opportunities to boost academic learning are therefore a priority.<\/p>\n<p>Children\u2019s mental health incorporates both:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>mental health difficulties, <\/strong>such as depression and anxiety and behaviour problems, and<\/li>\n<li><strong>positive mental health<\/strong> (also termed mental health competence or social and emotional wellbeing) which refers to children\u2019s psychosocial functioning.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>Positive mental health is an asset for learning<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The study found that children\u2019s positive mental health when they start school relates to their academic performance across a range of children\u2019s learning areas in Grade 3.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Implications of the study<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>This has implications for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aedc.gov.au\/resources\/detail\/2018-aedc-national-report\">20%<\/a> of Australian children who are arriving at school developmentally vulnerable or at risk, specifically in the domains of social competence and emotional maturity.<\/p>\n<p>As children from disadvantaged backgrounds <a href=\"https:\/\/jech.bmj.com\/content\/66\/1\/81.short\">are more likely to experience social and emotional difficulties during the pre-school period<\/a>, improving children\u2019s positive mental health could also be a strategy for improving academic success and reducing differences in academic learning for disadvantaged children.<\/p>\n<p>This would complement efforts to address mental health difficulties and disorder, which similarly have a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.educationmattersmag.com.au\/mental-health-and-wellbeing-matters\/\">negative impact on learning pathways at school.<\/a><\/p>\n<h3><strong>How can we promote positive mental health in the early years?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>In recent years, school-based programs targeting positive mental health have become more common. This study provides robust evidence to support the link between positive mental health and learning, however more evidence on specific school-based interventions is needed.<\/p>\n<p>Evidence suggests that programs that enable positive and stable adult-child relationships in the home and early education and care settings <a href=\"http:\/\/developingchild.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/The-Science-of-Resilience1.pdf\">help to promote social and emotional school readiness skills<\/a>. Once children begin school, nurturing teacher-child relationships, safe and inclusive school communities, and family-school partnerships are beneficial for building both social and emotional skills and creating stimulating learning environments.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For more information: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/10.3102\/0013189X19848724\">Full article &#8211; Positive Mental Health and Academic Achievement in Elementary School: New Evidence From a Matching Analysis<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rch.org.au\/uploadedFiles\/Main\/Content\/ccchdev\/1805-CCCH-PolicyBrief-29.pdf\">CCCH Policy Brief \u2013 Child Mental Health: A Time for Innovation<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New study expands our understanding of the early skills that help children to thrive at school.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":3441,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26516,5939],"tags":[12036,9633,9502,5107,12008,23838,23860],"class_list":["post-3439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-childrens-health-and-development-september","category-research-and-programs","tag-child-mental-health","tag-early-learning","tag-learning","tag-mental-health","tag-preschool","tag-prevention","tag-school"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/ccch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/ccch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/ccch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/ccch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/ccch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3439"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/ccch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3808,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/ccch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3439\/revisions\/3808"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/ccch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/ccch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/ccch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/ccch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}