A QUALITATIVE CASE STUDY ON TEACHER’S AWARENESS ABOUT ADOLESCENT DEPRESSION AND RELATIONSHIP IT HAS WITH SUICIDE AT SECONDARY SCHOOL IN WEST KAZAKHSTAN

Due to the prevalence of adolescent depression and its relationship to negative outcomes like suicide, the attention of Kazakhstani educational systems has recently been drawn towards students’ mental wellbeing (Akhand, 2019) and the role of the teacher in providing social support for the students potentially at risk (Joyce, 2019). According to research findings, teachers can play a significant role to buffer students’ depressive mood if they have relevant professional knowledge and preparation to identify and support suffering students (Jorm, Kitchener, Sawyer, Scales, and Cvetkovski, 2010). Thus, the aim of the study was to investigate educators’ knowledge about adolescent depression, its link to suicide, and teachers’ understanding of their role within the learning community. The research questions were designed to understand what local educators know about adolescent depression, its symptoms, causes, consequences, risk markers, protective factors, and their own role and perspectives on professional development about students’ emotional and mental health. The research design was a qualitative case study where six participants were recruited for participation in semi-structured interviews to collect the data. After analysis, the results indicate that the participants believed that there is a close connection between depression and suicide. Secondly, the data reveals that teachers believe that they can function as potential diagnosticians and social supporters for students suffering from depression if they have relevant knowledge about students’ mental health. Moreover, the data shows that teachers obtain some knowledge about depression from different sources but cannot describe the 3 mental disorder confidently. Thus, if they lack appropriate preparation about mental health, they cannot recognize the symptoms, understand students’ needs, or can conversely become a risk factor for learners’ psychological state. These results are useful for the future research in the field of adolescent mental health and the effective school interventions against students’ depression and suicide