Exploring School of Education Faculty Emotion, Attitudes, and Experiences Related to Student Mental Health

Student mental health concerns among adolescents and young adults are continuing to rise (Reis et al., 2023, Ashoorian, 2018; Burns et al., 2017; Davies et al., 2016). The purpose of the present study was to explore teacher preparation faculty perceptions of student mental health concerns. The author adapted Stine Ekorne’s (2016) Perceived Competence Scale to score each participant's perceived competence, responsibility, and emotions related to addressing student mental health concerns. The 27-item Qualtrics questionnaire was distributed to faculty and academic staff in the School of Education at a midwestern public university. Participants were recruited through email. Participants included tenured and tenure-track faculty and instructional academic staff members in the School of Education at a small midwestern university. An analysis of all participants showed an overall high score of perceived competence, responsibility, and emotions related to addressing student mental health concerns. However, preliminary results revealed that faculty and academic staff that do not have high school K-12 teaching experience scored the lowest in perceived competence in addressing student mental health concerns among their students in higher education. Future studies must recruit a larger number of participants who serve as teacher preparation faculty at a multitude of higher education institutions to further examine the findings of this study.