| Abstract: |
Many students in the middle schooling years face mental health challenges. Rates of depression and anxiety are on the rise; one in five adolescents experiences a mental disorder annually; self-harm is the third leading cause of death for teens (World Health Organization, 2020); and life satisfaction tends to decline during adolescence (Currie et al., 2008). Historically, health programming and research have overlooked adolescent well-being (Patton et al., 2016), particularly in relation to school. Although students in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries spend an annual average of 860 hours in school (OECD, 2019), we know little about the intersections between youth well-being and schooling (John-Akinola & Gabhainn, 2014). This research helps illuminate these intersections by examining young adolescents’ perspectives on their individual well-being, in their own words and in the context of what they wished their teachers knew. In this qualitative study, we analyzed student responses to the prompt, “I wish my teacher knew…” obtained through an online questionnaire completed by approximately 2000 young adolescents across 42 countries. We adopted an ecological conceptual framework, positioning the school as a key socio-ecological site in the ecology of health promotion. Responses were analyzed using a priori codes derived from the OECD’s indicators of non-material well-being. The results included insights in the areas of work-life balance, personal security, subjective well-being, and civic engagement. These findings offer implications for practitioners, with regards to homework, bullying prevention, social emotional learning, and democratic schools.
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