Peer-reviewed article
Optimization Pathways for Mental Health Education in Primary Schools from the Perspective of Positive Psychology
Jingwen Li ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5-5This paper looks at mental health education in primary schools in China through the lens of positive psychology. It argues that current practice focuses mostly on identifying and counselling children's mental health problems and on serious mental illness. As a result, the systematic building of positive psychological qualities in students gets too little attention. The paper reviews the current situation and proposes specific strategies to make school mental health education more effective.
Key points
- China gives little attention to the systematic cultivation and early development of positive psychological qualities in students.
- Mental health education has focused on identifying and counselling problems and on intervening in serious mental illness.
- Teachers tend to focus on students' existing or potential psychological distress.
- A problem-focused model does not cover all aspects of mental health education.
- The paper proposes specific implementation strategies based on positive psychology.
Limitations
Only the abstract is available, so the proposed strategies, the evidence behind them and the methods used are not visible. The paper appears to be a conceptual or discussion piece and does not report testing an intervention.
Abstract
At present, there is a serious lack of attention given by China to the systematic cultivation and early development of positive psychological qualities in students. Mental health education has focused more on identifying and counselling children’s mental health problems and intervening in serious mental illness; thus, teachers are also more likely to focus on the existing or potential psychological distress of their students. To some extent, this educational model fails to cover all aspects of mental health education because it is problem-focused. Based on the ideas of positive psychology, this paper examines the current situation of mental health education in primary schools and, according to its theoretical and practical value and significance, proposes some specific implementation strategies. It aims to improve the effectiveness of mental health education in primary schools and offer a reference for the implementation and development of such education for primary school students.