Secondary school staff experiences of supporting and promoting adolescent mental health in Ireland
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21530718 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Anna Blix (0009-0003-9793-364X, Jigsaw The National Centre for Youth Mental Health), Maeve Dwan-O'Reilly (0000-0002-6997-9021, Jigsaw The National Centre for Youth Mental Health), Laura Walsh (0000-0003-1368-0298, University College Dublin), Ailbhe Booth (0000-0001-7439-6851, Jigsaw The National Centre for Youth Mental Health), Caroline Heary (0000-0001-8732-0856, The University of Galway), Eilis Hennessy (0000-0002-5826-6667, University College Dublin, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 45 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 321-342 |
| Publication date | 2026-04-03 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Irish Educational Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0332-3315 • E-ISSN: 1747-4965 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/03323315.2024.2430298 |
| OpenAlex | W4404693611 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 35 |
Teachers and other school staff are increasingly relied on to address student mental health in secondary schools in Ireland. As part of the Wellbeing Policy Statement and Framework for Practice (2019), the Department of Education set out the ambition to place the promotion of wellbeing at the core and ethos of all schools in Ireland by 2023. This study investigates secondary school staff’s experiences of addressing mental health in schools through qualitative analysis of open question data provided by n = 359 school staff. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyse the data, resulting in three themes. The themes highlighted the salience of mental health in schools, the wide variety of ways mental health is integrated in Irish secondary schools, and how mental health in schools can be a source of pressure for staff. The findings of this study suggest that staff, while generally positive towards mental health engagement in schools, do not feel adequately prepared to deliver this content to the extent expected of them. Findings are discussed in relation to the Wellbeing Framework as well as the existing international literature on school based mental health content, and implications for policy and practice are proposed
Medical education · Mental health · Pedagogy · Psychiatry · Child and Adolescent Health · Early Childhood Education and Development · Medicine · Psychology · Research in Social Sciences
Why Open-Ended Survey Questions Are Unlikely to Support Rigorous Qualitative Insights
Supporting children’s mental health in schools
Mental Health Literacy
The Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child Model
Age at onset of mental disorders worldwide
Thematic Analysis
Student support teams
Guidance teachers’ and support staff's experience of working with pupils with mental health difficulties in two secondary schools
A worked example of Braun and Clarke’s approach to reflexive thematic analysis
Teachers' experiences with K‐12 students' mental health
The implementation of a whole school approach to mental health and well-being promotion in the Irish primary school context
Preliminary analysis of validation evidence for two new scales assessing teachers’ confidence and worries related to delivering mental health content in the classroom
Teacher involvement in school mental health interventions
On the front-line
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |