Developing young people’s mental health awareness through education and sport: Insights from the Tackling the Blues programme

Abstract

There is growing national and international concern about the mental health of children and young people, and in countries such as England there is now a political and policy commitment to developing whole-school approaches to mental health. This paper presents new evidence on how pupils’ mental health is being addressed in schools using learning activities associated with physical education, sport and physical activity, as part of a school-based sport- and mental health-themed programme (‘Tackling the Blues’) for pupils aged 6–16 years old in north-west England. In particular, we examine how pupil-centred learning activities have been used in weekly multi-sport activity sessions and related classroom-based workshops, and draw upon insight from 29 focus groups to explore pupils’ ( n = 116) mental health awareness and associated socio-emotional learning (SEL). The learning activities led pupils to focus on the impact personal relationships with family and friends, feelings and emotions, and experiences of stress, anger and entrapment can have on mental health. It is argued that embedding socially relevant learning activities into the content, organisation and delivery of school curricula may help improve pupils’ sense of enjoyment, participation and achievement which are important for enhancing their knowledge and awareness of mental health, and developing SEL. However, we conclude that the effectiveness of whole-school approaches also depends, perhaps to a greater degree, on the wider educational systems in which schools are located and especially the widening social, economic and health inequalities which have profound impacts on child development, educational and other outcomes, and mental health.

Mental health, sleep, and pain in elite Para athletes and the association with injury and illness—A prospective study

“…It is recommended that future population‐based studies evaluate in greater detail whether sport has a positive or negative effect on mental health among persons with an impairment. Moreover, research from other sectors, such as schools, show that mental health promotion has the potential to improve knowledge and increase awareness of mental health issues, and it could be hypothesized that such intervention also could be beneficial within the Para sport 32 …”

“…Moreover, research from other sectors, such as schools, show that mental health promotion has the potential to improve knowledge and increase awareness of mental health issues, and it could be hypothesized that such intervention also could be beneficial within the Para sport. 32…”

“Instead of Being on a Screen You Can Be More Out There and Enjoy Your Life”: Young People’s Understandings of Physical Activity for Health

“…Yet, data suggests mental health disorders in 7-16-year-olds rose from 1 in 9 in 2017 to 1 in 6 in 2020 [66]. With growing concerns about young people's mental health, PE (and the various physical activities and sports in which young people engage in and through PE), has been viewed as one of the key ways through which to contribute to students' mental health [67]. This has been reinforced by the Association for Physical Education (afPE) [68] in the UK [68] (p.7) who contend:…”

Introduction to Special Issue on Mental Health and Mental Illness in Physical Education and Youth Sport

“…Developing pupils’ mental health awareness and socio-emotional learning in schools is the focus of the third paper by Haycock, Jones and Smith (2020) which draws upon data from a school-based mental health-themed programme (‘Tackling the Blues’) for pupils aged 6–16-years-old in north-west England. They provide new evidence on how various pupil-centred learning activities have been used in weekly multi-sport activity sessions and classroom-based workshops to explore pupils’ understandings of mental health.…”