Mental Health Awareness in the School Curriculum: its Importance as Perceived by Grade 12 STEM

Students

Chapter I

INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Today’s younger generation represents the largest group of students in history. The transition from
adolescence into young adulthood involves major changes in several areas – financial, housing, social,
and emotional – and this transition period can cause relational challenges that some young adults
experience as stressful. It has also been maintained that the proportion of students who experience
their student life as mentally stressful is increasing (Nedregård and Olsen, 2014). This trend may suggest
that students experience this period increasingly demanding, and for some of them it may be a direct
cause of mental illness.

Both anxiety and depression are detrimental to academic and social participation in everyday student
life. Depressive disorders result in lowered mood, reduced cognitive function, lack of a sense of coping
and interest in others, as well as lack of energy In turn, depression and anxiety often affect memory and
concentration, which makes it more difficult to acquire new knowledge and cope with examination
situations.This will often reinforce perceptions of hopelessness and inadequacy, and in many people it
will sustain the feeling of anxiety and depressed mood in a vicious circle On the other hand, and
depending on the symptom level, some uncertainty and anxiety in the academic situation may
contribute to increased work effort and possibly improved results.

Because of the pandemic, many students, particularly those at Donsol National Comprehensive High
School, require mental health awareness. We chose this topic because it is one of the most important
things that a student should learn, especially since teenagers are prone to anxiety and depression. The
researchers aims to assist students who are dealing with anxiety and depression during this pandemic in
order for them to live a positive and productive lifestyle. The significance of this research is to raise
mental health awareness in order to reduce students’ internal challenges.

Mental health awareness is one of the people’s problems that may cause mental illness to them. It is
important especially to those students that probably struggling with their academic performances. It can
increase the chances for early intervention that may result in their fast recovery. The purpose of this
mental health awareness for us is to provide a healthy mind that will help us to avoid the possible bad
effect of mental health issues. As a student, we can’t avoid this kind of issue in our mental health
because of too much pressure not only in school but also at home. The result of this was having
depression, trauma, anxiety, etc that one of the causes of these mental health issues.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. What role does mental health awareness play in schools?

2. What processes or principles should teachers follow when working with pupils who have mental
health problems?

3. Are students aware of the mental health resources offered at their schools and how do they get in
touch with them?

SCOPE AND DELIMITATION

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant worldwide impact on the lives of more than 1.6 billion
students at its peak (UNESCO 2021) and their schooling. Similar to many other countries, the United
States also pursued a policy to lockdown schools, starting in mid-March 2020, to mitigate the pandemic.
The lockdown caused the schools to rapidly adopt and pursue remote learning using video conferencing
methods. The teachers, students, and their families have experienced several different challenges,
including increased stress and anxiety that has led to degradation of mental health. The issues have
been further compounded by stringent social distancing measures necessitated due to the lack of
vaccines and high mortality rates (over two million deaths worldwide).

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

It will help us to better understand what is the mental health status of a student at the current moment
of the pandemic or even the future. It will also make us better understand what is mental health and
what is this about. With this we can debunk the falls informations about mental health of a student and
better understand that more as a teacher and a fellow student. It will also inform us on what the things
that we can do to avoid problems in the range of the mental health and what we can do to better
produced a healthy environment in our mental health.

It will teach us how to be a better person to everyone because this will open our minds to understand
what is happening to most people on certain terms or certain problems or situations. It will also teach us
the importance of our own mind and it will produce a better safe environment to every single student
and to the future because we all go through school and with a great platform that a school has it will be
a right place to teach what is and what is not mental health.