A teen mental health has become a topic of global concern in recent years. With the impacts of the pandemic, mental disorders such as anxiety It is depression are increasingly common in young people and adolescents.
Read too: What are the symptoms of depression?
Topics of this article
- 1 - What factors determine the mental health of a teenager?
- 2 - Role of the school in the mental health of adolescents
- 3 - Role of the family in the mental health of adolescents
- 4 - Warning signs
- 5 - Mental health and social vulnerability
- 6 - Pandemic and mental health
What factors determine a teenager's mental health?
Adolescence is a crucial period for everyone's mental health. In addition to the physical and hormonal transformations, it is the moment of transition from childhood to adulthood, a phase that carries a series of responsibilities, doubts and questions.
É in adolescence that we make decisions that can guide our trajectories for the coming years. Choosing an undergraduate course is one of them. By itself, the entrance exam rite of passage implies a psychological stress that brings consequences, sometimes, very negative for the mental health of the young person.
For Susie Amâncio, PhD professor in Psychologyfrom the Federal University of Goiás (UFG), all transformations of adolescence bring a certain vulnerability, not only social but mainly emotional and psychic, to the adolescent.
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Due to this vulnerability, combined with all the cultural and social pressure, it is common for certain mental illnesses to manifest themselves from adolescence onwards. In Brazil, according to Unicef data, one in six young people aged 10 to 19 years lives with a disordermental. For Susie Amancio,
This is also a phase of many decisions due to the imposed cultural demands, the very proximity of the professional choice, the greater responsibility that is given by the family to the teenager, the demands for income and a series of things that end up bringing some kind of stress and sharpening vulnerabilities that are already there being brought along the history of the development of this child.
See more:How psychology helps students in the pre-university and enem period
Role of the school in the mental health of adolescents
The worrying reality calls parents/guardians and schools for an open dialogue about the mental health of young people. In this context, another debate arises: what is the role of the school in caring for and maintaining the mental health of its students?
For Susie Amâncio, before thinking about the role of schools, it is necessary to understand that there are different models and school realities, from state, municipal and federal public schools to private schools and elite.
However, the teacher points out that the great challenge for schools is to combine academic training with human training. In this way, schools also need to be concerned with human development and welcoming in the educational process.
At Colégio Oficina do Estudante, in Campinas, São Paulo, follow-up takes place through lectures, actions and reception by school psychologists. Antunes Rafael, pedagogical director of Oficina, points out that:
The activities (of the school) are programmed thinking about the study routine and how it can be impacted by the emotional issues of students and teachers. The performance of the management team is fundamental for structuring these actions with a focus on mental health.
Role of the family in the mental health of adolescents
On the role of the family, the UFG professor emphasizes the importance of observing the processes of adolescents, of openness to dialogue and a sensitivity to understand the needs and individual differences of each young person.
Thus, it is necessary to establish a relationship between parents and children in which both parties are heard and respected, which the teacher considers a challenge.
Many times problems can be solved with dialogue, with greater attention, with love and affection, but many times not. Certain problems will require a professional look, and for those parents who are able to afford treatment psychotherapeutic or psychiatric, it is easy to say to seek help, but for low-income parents, in fact, that help is further.
As a guideline for the family, the teacher emphasizes the importance of a closer look at the behavioral changes in adolescents. It is necessary to monitor and be aware of what the teenager is experiencing.
warning signs
Some indications imply faster attitudes on the part of parents and schools, they are:
- anguish;
- anxiety and depression that constantly speak of discouragement;
- ideations in relation to death, running away, getting out of the state of pain;
- self-mutilation.
There are also indications: feeling of hopelessness, discouragement, lack of interest in activities in which I had before, changes in sleep and food.
Mental health and social vulnerability
The factors that can lead a young person (or adult) to mental illness and disorders are diverse. Family and subjective situations can become ill, leading to diseases such as depression and anxiety disorder. However, there is another major determining factor for the mental health of young people and society as a whole: the social differences.
According to the World Mental Health Report WHO, social and economic injustices and health emergencies are among the structural threats to mental health. For the teacher, the economic and social vulnerability is already a risk factor for psychic disorders.
Low-income students from public schools face greater difficulties than those attended by private schools. Allied to this, according to Susie Amâncio, we have a social condition based on a reality completely perverse, which robs these students of hope — the basic condition for any development human.
The teacher points out that young people only learn, only dedicate themselves to causes and to their own investment in their lives, if they have hopes for a better reality. Therefore, the young person who looks around and finds a reality that does not allow him to hope, he is much more vulnerable to mental health issues than students who are in higher grades wealthy.
And protecting the mental health of the population is a protection of society's very survival. A society in which part of its members is sick is, in fact, vulnerable as a whole.
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Pandemic and mental health
The WHO report also points out that the depression and anxiety increased by more than 25% in just the first year of pandemic.
The research data were felt by Professor Susie Amâncio, who teaches classes for students in the first semester of the Psychology course at UFG. According to her, there has been a worrying increase in the reports of students who arrive at the university and are in psychiatric treatment, with anxiety crises, depression, and some others with some more serious disorders. serious:
The experience of covid, in addition to vulnerability, combined with the conditions of isolation and (even more) social and economic uncertainties, and the condition itself of social and political insecurity that we experienced in these pandemic years brought a very large overload for the student who was preparing for the entrance exam.
At the Oficina do Estudante college, welcoming actions and lectures were held on the new dynamic that would be initiated. In addition, according to the school, the work with socio-emotional education provides for constant observation and attentive listening to the demands presented by the students.
Thinking about entrance exams, the school maintains an exclusive professional, precisely so that it can closely monitor performance issues and emotional demands that may affect this performance.
By Miguel Souza
Journalist
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