Teachers' perceptions of children's mental health problems

There is evidence of unmet need for mental health interventions for primary school children. Such children are generally unable to seek help for themselves and therefore, depend on the adults with whom they interact to seek help on their behalf. These adults include teachers, who have advantages over parents in terms of help-seeking, such as their knowledge of normative development. Government policies have outlined the teacher's role in terms of the mental well-being of their pupils, and fulfilling this role includes the ability to recognise that a problem exists and knowledge of how to seek appropriate help for the problem. It is unclear as to whether teachers possess the knowledge and skills to fulfil this role effectively. This study therefore used a cross-sectional design to explore teachers' perceptions of children's mental health problems. To obtain the necessary information, a questionnaire, composed of vignettes of children with clinical symptomatology, sub-clinical symptomatology or problem-free children, was created.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo