Why Young People Dont Seek Help and What We Can do about it

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Why Young People Dont Seek Help and What We Can
do about it

• Helen Cahill
• Youth Research Centre
• University of Melbourne
• h.cahill_at_unimelb.edu.au

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Researching Help-seeking with Prep to year 12
students

• Instrumental
• Felt sick
• Injured self
• Lost something
• Money problems
• Students more likely to seek this form of support
  except for

• Social/emotional
• Felt sad
• Had friendship problem
• Being bullied
• Friend being bullied
• Family problems

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Help seeking from 3 sources

• Friends
• Parents / caregivers
• Teachers
• In all categories Teachers are less likely to be
  asked for help than Parents and Friends

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Help-seeking - 3 sources compared for Years 5 - 12
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Help-seeking - key findings

• Gender differences -
• boys less likely to seek help than girls, all
  sources, all categories
• Difficulties -
• those who score highest in schoolyard
  difficulties and classroom difficulties are least
  willing to seek help, all sources

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Gender and help-seeking

• Gender difference in help-seeking is least marked
  on help-seeking from parents
• Particularly marked in help-seeking from friends
  for social and emotional problems
• Situations involving sadness, friendship problems
  or family problems are the most strongly gendered

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Help-seeking grade 4 gt 12

• from Friends
• Increases over time in most situations
• Significant drop at year 7
• Senior SC students freer to ask peers for help on
  more personal questions eg bullying, money
  problems
• from Teachers
• falls consistently through PS and SC until year
  11 when students turn back to teachers
• from Parents
• Remains more constant over the years

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Asking teacher for help
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Teacher behaviors and a YES to Help-seeking
(years 4-12)

• Strong predictors
• when my teacher
• Smiles at me
• Says hello to me
• Talks to me
• Shows he/she is proud of me
• Takes an interest in what I do

• Moderate Predictors
• when my teacher
• Organises fun activity
• Notices my effort
• Sets interesting work
• Encourages me to join in
• Helps me learn from my mistakes

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When is it harder to ask for help?

• Embarrassment
• If you had a personal problem, people might tease
  you
• What people might think of you
• You can be embarrassed nearly all your life
• Fear
• If youre scared it is hard to ask for help
• It is scary to ask a stranger or someone you
  dont know for help

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When is it harder to ask for help

• Autonomy
• When you are older you can work the problem out
  by yourself
• Pride and shame
• When you dont want people to know you need help

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When is it harder to ask for help?

• Access
• If you dont know their name it is hard to ask
  them for help
• If youre new you dont know people to ask
• When the teachers on yard duty are talking to
  each other
• When knocking on the door takes guts
• Risk
• When the kids say Ill do something if you
  tell
• Telling might make it worse
• You might start crying if you talk about it

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when is it harder to ask for help?

• Privacy
• When you cant get to the teacher because other
  kids are around
• They might talk about you and people find out
• You dont want other people talking about you
• Relationship
• When a teacher is angry or grumpy to other
  students you think they will be like that with
  you
• You have to like them and trust them
• You have to think they like you
• Reprimands
• They might tell you off

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• What else might be in the way of help-seeking?

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Lonely ?

• 40 of year eight students believe no one knows
  them well
• Nearly a quarter of students have
• no one to talk to if they are upset
• no one to trust
• no one to depend on
• (Glover et al 1998)

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Two conditions of our times for youth

• Anomie normlessness
• not knowing what normal is
• lack of an internalized structure for dealing
  with problems life skills and coping skills
• Alienation lack of bonding and belonging
• Bronfenbrenner, Urie. Feb 1986 Alienation and
  the Four Worlds of Children Phi Delta Kappan,
  pp430-436

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Resnick et al (1997)A sense of connectedness to
parents and school is the most significant
protective factor for young people
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Connectedness - a protective factor

• schools /families/ communities enhance belonging
  and self-worth when they
• build caring relationships support, compassion,
  trust
• set high and achievable expectations respect,
  guidance, acknowledgment, building on strengths
  of each person,
• provide opportunities for participation and
  contribution - responsibilities, real
  decision-making power, building ownership,
  interaction, fun
• Bernard (1997)A Framework for Practice Tapping
  Innate Resilience, Resiliency in Action

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What a teacher should do if he/she notices a
student is down

• Ask them what is wrong
• Talk to them in private
• Cheer the person up
• Take them to sick bay
• Ring parents
• Put with some friends
• work out a solution together

• Give them a lolly / a cuddle / a sticker
• Send them to play with another group
• Tell them to play football
• Sometimes the teacher should back off, shouldnt
  force the issue

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factors related to resilience

• A sense of humour and ability to have fun
• A sense of detachment (healthy distancing)
• The presence of one healthy adult
• Beardslee,W.R. and Podorefsky, D. Jan 1988
  Resilient Adolescents Whose Parents Have Serious
  Affective and Other Psychiatric Disorders The
  Importance of Self-Understanding and
  Relationships American Journal of Psychiatry,
  Vol 145, No 1

• Social competence
• Problem-solving skills
• Autonomy
• Sense of purpose and future
• Benard, B. Jan 1991, Fostering Resiliency in
  Kids Protective factors in the Family, School
  and Community Western Regional Centre for
  Drug-Free Schools and Communities, Far West
  Laboratory. San Francisco, CA

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What students say supports their participation
with others

• fun activities
• group work
• shared tasks
• games
• sports
• arts activities
• friendly class
• you think you will succeed

• teacher likes you
• friends joining in
• camps
• orientation activities
• seating plans which mix students
• when popular people let you join in

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Barriers to participation

• laughed at by class for the wrong answer
• bad comments from teachers about wrong answers
• teacher doesnt like you or picks on you
• you get made an example of
• Teachers make you feel stupid by their responses
  they look for a better answer

• Not having confidence
• Being embarrassed
• Some activities are just seen as for smart or
  popular kids
• not motivated
• too tired
• not comfortable with others or have no friends
• teacher doesnt give chances

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What students say the teacher should do if he/she
notices the student is down or upset

• Take them seriously
• Ask them what is wrong
• Listen
• Follow up with a conversation
• Respect the need for privacy

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Engagement in school work - years 5 -12
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engagement

• Relationship
• Task

relationship
task
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connectedness

• What strategies do you use to generate
  interaction?
• If you were the architect of interaction in your
  school community -
• what would you design into place?
• What heritage would you be careful not to lose?

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Interactive teaching strategies

• enhance connectedness, engagement, participation
• develop communication skills
• build a sense of community and inclusion
• utilise group members as a teaching resource -
  peer educators
• enhance development of shared language
  understanding
• facilitate real learning via problem-solving
  approach
• provide opportunities for rehearsal /skill
  building

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Interpersonal skills for group work

• Ignoring distractions
• Negotiating
• Active listening
• Resolving conflicts
• Reaching agreement
• Including everyone
• Following directions
• Criticise ideas not people
• Energise/ encourage group
• Disagree in agreeable way
• Celebrate success

• Taking turns
• Sharing materials
• Managing materials Asking for clarification
• Using quiet voices
• Staying on task
• Moving quietly to groups
• Checking for understanding
• Using names
• Staying with the group

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building connectedness in the classroom

• teambuilding games
• paired sharing
• brainstorming
• shared problem-solving
• choosing goals designing strategies
• task conferencing
• self-assessment
• shared endeavours
• listening to shared or individual concerns
• co-operative tasks

• discussion or debate
• teaching others
• mixing games activities
• researching real issues
• doing real world work for real purposes
• designing or running activities
• time for fun celebration
• community service
• sharing a sense of purpose

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Getting into their heads

• Understanding the pressures, expectations, hopes
  and fears that impact on their choices and their
  sense of what is possible

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Basic Human Needs Self Concept
Sense of control capability, competence, impact
on ones own environment, power over ones self,
use of social/life skills, power to change ones
self and environment
Sense of bonding with family/peers/community, to
feel/be wanted, to feel/be loved, to belong, to
have basic needs met
bonding
control
meaning
Sense of meaning to feel important, to feel
relevant, self-esteem, sense of dignity/honour,
able to accomplish tasks
Nancy Phillips, Wellness During
Childhood/Adolescent Development. Prevention
Forum, Vol 10, Issue 4, July 1990
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Messages from the kids

• All teachers have the power to make a difference

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Its good when teachers do
dont

• treat you with respect
• smile and say hello
• take an interest in you
• notice when you try
• still speak to you when they dont teach you
  anymore
• notice when youre down

• yell
• blame you when it was someone else
• threaten to drop you from the team or act
• refuse to believe you
• talk on and on
• make sarcastic jokes

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Its good when teachers do
dont

• encourage you
• make work interesting
• let you make mistakes
• know your name
• talk to everyone
• trust you
• like you
• celebrate sometimes
• set practical activities
• have fun

• tell you youre a bad class
• have favorites
• hold up your mistakes
• embarrass you in front of the class
• put you down
• tease you
• compare you to your brothers or sister
• Refuse to listen to you

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Considering Curriculum
Generate interactive pedagogy to build
relationship enhance connectedness
HOW
WHO
WHAT
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Developing a sense of connectedness or belonging
to school

• Is enhanced via
• perceived opportunities to participate
• amount of interaction and involvement with others
• extent of positive reinforcement of involvement
  interaction
• emotional, cognitive and behavioural skills for
  interaction Catalano Hawkins
  (1996)

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Protective factors - the school

• caring supportive teachers
• high expectations and emphasis on learning
  process
• clearly stated rules
• opportunities to participate and be responsible

• positive reinforcement for participation
• belief in values of school
• connectedness (feeling part of the school and
  close to people there)
• availability of counselling from teachers

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What can be done?

• Whole school approach to promotion of mental
  health
• - a collaborative purposeful collective effort to
• enhance relationships and support
• enhance physical environment
• address review, planning, curriculum, student
  welfare discipline and staff support in a
  collective and creative way
• work purposefully towards long term goals
• make meaning and sense of whats happening
• interact often, positively
• Schedule fun, often

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Normalise help-seeking

• Use MindMatters curriculum to open discussion and
  to develop help-seeking attitudes and skills

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Enhancing School Culture

• success of best practice strategies associated
  with positive learning and developmental outcomes
  in students depends on
• ongoing opportunities for participation
• quality of relationships surrounding them
• Bernard (1997)A Framework for Practice Tapping
  Innate Resilience, Resiliency in Action