Parents’/carers’ participation in mental health promotion in schools

Abstract

There has long been an understanding of the impact of the family situation on children’s school achievement across cultures and contexts and consequently also of the importance of involving parents in their children’s education. Ecological systems theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1989) further highlighted the importance of the child’s interactions within the different microsystems as well as the impact of the interactions between the different microsystems such as home and school at mesosystem level. There is wide evidence that, as reported in two longitudinal studies, ‘increases in parents’ involvement over time were related to concomitant increases in children’s social skills and declines in problem behaviors’ both as reported by the parents and teachers (Daniela, Wanga, & Berthelsenb, 2016; El Nokali, Bachman, & Votruba-Drzal, 2010, p. 1002). Most of the evidence-based studies of school-parent/carer collaboration were focused on promoting children’s engagement in the cognitive curriculum (Christensen & Reschly, 2010; Fishel & Ramirez, 2005), or interventions with children with social, emotional or behavior difficulties (Castro et al., 2015; Desforges & Abouchaar, 2003; El Nokali, Bachman, & Votruba-Drzal, 2010; Jeynes, 2012; Rickard et al., 2016; Stadnick, Drahota, & Brookman-Frazee, 2013; Valdez, Carlson, & Zanger, 2005). A review of the literature on evidence-based school mental health programmes that involved parental participation between 1980 and 2003 only identified just over 100 such studies, but moderate to large effects on student learning and behaviour outcomes were reported for such programmes (Carlson & Christenson, 2005). A more recent review of journal articles published between 1995 and 2010 that reported student mental health interventions involving parents/carers delivered in school settings identified 100 articles describing 39 interventions (Mendez et al., 2013). The majority of programmes involved parents/carers through group parent training. The latter review grouped interventions into universal, selected, targeted or indicated, or multitier programmes, though only two programmes involved all three tiers. Universal interventions were defined as those ‘that aimed to prevent the development of child problems by decreasing risk factors, building resilience, and strengthening protective factors’.