Ludwig / Summer / Eisenmann Mental Health in English Language Education

1. Auflage 2024
ISBN: 978-3-381-11463-4
Verlag: Narr Francke Attempto Verlag
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, Band 13, 259 Seiten

Reihe: Studies in English Language Teaching /Augsburger Studien zur Englischdidaktik

Mental health has become a growing concern in today's society, with schools emerging as focal points for addressing this topic. The present volume takes this as a starting point to explore the relevance of curricula and competencies, texts and materials, (digital) culture and communication, and teacher education in the context of mental health and English language education. This, for instance, includes insights into interrelated topics such as gender, climate change, stress, and conspiracy theories. A variety of texts including multimodal novels, video games, and songs provides practical impulses for integrating mental health related topics into English lessons. As such, this volume brings together scholars from various fields who discuss the relationship between mental health issues and English as a foreign language learning from a variety of theoretical, empirical, and practice-oriented perspectives.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Ludwig, Christian

Summer, Theresa

Eisenmann, Maria

Becker, Daniel

Krüger, Nadine

Leseproben

2 Terminology around Mental Health
Mental health is a highly complex construct. According to the mental health pyramid proposed by the international initiative mentalhealthliteracy.org, mental health needs to be perceived as multilayered. More precisely, it encompasses four interrelated states: in the positive state, a person experiences utter mental satisfaction, which is marked by the lack of any immediate stressors or problems. The mental distress state refers to mental distress that occurs when dealing with everyday stress, worries, or personal irritations (e.g., being in a bad mood or being anxious about a doctor’s appointment). These irritations are usually temporary and can be coped with relatively easily in everyday life. In contrast, the mental health problems state addresses more severe mental conditions in the form of mental health problems. Mental health problems occur when individuals are confronted with events that strongly (and often suddenly) disrupt their emotional lives, such as the unexpected death of a family member. These events can lead to long-term physical and mental reactions (e.g., fatigue, sadness, mourning, inability to concentrate), which might necessitate support from friends, family, or even mental health professionals. Finally, the clinical state refers to mental disorders. Specific events can cause both mental health problems and mental disorders, yet, while mental health problems are an aspect of life that can be resolved, for example, through support from family and friends, mental disorders require professional help. These four states are not mutually exclusive but need to be considered as different layers of an individual’s mental health, which can manifest simultaneously. Next to these different layers of mental health, what makes the term even more complex is the fact that it has several meanings and is approached differently by different disciplines (Mechanic 2006); in other words: it has become a ?travelling concept’. For example, while sociology focuses on how “life events, social conditions, social roles, social structures, and cultural systems” influence a person’s mental health (Horwitz 2009: 7), psychological approaches concentrate on individual factors and intrapersonal processes, which may contribute to mental health conditions (cf., e.g., Schwartz/Corcoran 2009; Peterson 2009). Even within the fields of medicine and psychology, two different systems for classifying issues of mental health and, in particular, mental disorders exist. While the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) serves as a general diagnostic tool to categorise different types of diseases, of which mental disorders form only a small subsection, the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) is specifically designed to classify, diagnose, and describe different types of mental disorders. Furthermore, with each new edition, some changes are made to both classification systems, indicating that new evidence and information continue to change our understanding of mental health and mental health issues. Used in such different academic contexts, it is hardly surprising that the term mental health often coincides with other related terms (e.g., emotional health, happiness, or mental illness), thus establishing a semantic field of its own. Although many of these terms are often used interchangeably or even synonymously, they are distinct independent dimensions of a person’s holistic well-being. As it would go far beyond the scope of this introduction to discuss all of these constructs from the perspectives of all disciplines, Table 1 provides a brief overview of selected key terms and concepts that we consider especially important for the context of English language education. Although mental disorder and mental illness are often used interchangeably, they are not the same and therefore listed separately in the table below. Behavioural disorders Behavioural disorders refer to “a pattern of disruptive behaviors in children that […] cause problems in school, at home and in social situations” (MentalHealth.gov 2022). According to the ICD-10, behavioural disorders include attention-deficit hyperactivity disorders, conduct disorder, and disorders of social functioning with onset specific to childhood and adolescence. Emotional disorders Emotional disorders refer to “any psychological disorder characterized primarily by maladjustive emotional reactions that are inappropriate or disproportionate to their cause” (American Psychological Association 2022), including emotional disorders with onset specific to childhood. Emotional intelligence   Emotional intelligence describes a complex construct that involves emotional awareness (i.e., perceiving one’s own and others’ emotions), emotional facilitation of thinking (i.e., using emotions to guide decision-making), emotional understanding (i.e., comprehending why one is feeling a certain way), and emotional regulation (i.e., managing one’s emotions for personal well-being and creating and maintaining positive relationships). (Salovey/Mayer 1990) Health Health describes “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” (WHO 2021b) Mental health Mental health is described as “a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realize their abilities, learn well and work well, and contribute to their community.” (WHO 2021a) Mental disorder Mental disorder is defined as a “clinically significant disturbance in an individual’s cognition, emotional regulation, or behaviour that reflects a dysfunction in the psychological, biological, or developmental processes that underlie mental and behavioural functioning. These disturbances are usually associated with distress or impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.” (WHO 2023) Mental illness Mental illness is defined as any condition “involving changes in emotion, thinking or behavior (or a combination of these)”. As such, mental illness is “associated with distress and/or problems functioning in social, work or family activities.” (American Psychiatric Association 2022a), including conduct disorder, hyperactivity, indirect aggression, and symptoms of depression/anxiety. Mindfulness Mindfulness “is a state of being characterized by present-moment awareness of the unfolding of experience in a nonreactive way” (Lueke/Lueke 2019: 1531). Being mindful can help increase social and emotional learning and also improve academic achievement. (Zeilhofer 2020) Well-being   Well-being describes “the quality of people’s lives” (OECD 2019: 258) which is defined by the absence of distress, disorder, and illness (Dodge et al., 2012: 225) as well as the awareness of and engagement in positive mental health practices. Tab. 1: Terms and definitions around mental health Taking this into account, mental health can be defined as a person’s cognitive, behavioural, and emotional well-being and the ability to effectively function in daily life. Thus, mental health is not simply the opposite of mental illness (UK Department of Health 2014: 1) or the “absence of disease or disorder; it involves self-esteem, mastery, and the ability to maintain meaningful relationships with others” (Scheid/Brown 2009: 1). These aspects are also reflected in the notion of mental health literacy. Based on the concept of physical health literacy, i.e. “the ability to gain access to, understand, and use information in ways which promote and maintain good health” (Nutbeam 2015: 451), mental health literacy is used to describe a person’s ability to take care of themselves and manage stress and anxiety (cf., e.g., Jorm 2000; 2020). According to Anthony Francis Jorm et al., mental health literacy can be understood as a person’s “knowledge and beliefs about mental disorders which aid their recognition, management or prevention” (1997: 184). As with any other literacy, mental health literacy consists of different components as displayed in Fig. 1. Fig. 1: Components of mental health literacy (based on Jorm 2018; cf. Ludwig/Martinez 2022) Mental health literate adolescents look after their own mental health as well as that of others, identify stressors (such as not getting enough sleep or spending too much time online), respond to mental health problems in a timely and adequate manner, seek help, undergo treatment, and, ultimately, help reduce prejudice and stigma around mental health issues (McCance-Katz/Lynch 2019). In contrast to this, and at the other end of the spectrum, adolescents with a low level of mental health literacy find it much more difficult to recognise unhealthy patterns in their feelings, thoughts, and behaviours and may even misperceive their own mental health needs (Miles et al. 2020; Simkiss et al. 2020). Mental health may be misinterpreted as a static...