High school teachers` personal attitudes of adolescent depression : a study in Mukah, Sarawak

Abstract

Adolescents have an excessive rate of untreated mental health issues, particularly when it comes to depression. It should be noted that, the current literature does not provide enough evidence on the influence of teachers’ attitudes toward mental health services. This research contributes to information and understanding on teachers’ decisions and attitudes toward mental health services for their students. This study provided information on teachers’ beliefs about mental health, along with their age, gender, ethnicity, years of education, and years of teaching. They were analysed to establish the impact of the pre-determined characteristics on teachers’ decisions to refer a student for the services. For this study, 150 high school teachers were selected to complete the survey assessing their attitudes of mental health as well as whether or not they would refer students for services referring to certain situations. The data suggested that teachers’ characteristics concerning to age (? = 1.516, t = 2.075, p < .05), gender (? = -3.336, t = -2.220, p < .05), psychological openness (F(5, 86) = 2.488, R2 = .126, p < .05), and indifference to stigma (F(1, 149) = 5.395, p =0.022) showed a correlation to participants’ decision to refer students for the services in the scenario presented. This study implied an urgent social change regarding how teachers are educated related to mental health awareness.