Mental health literacy and seeking for professional help among secondary school students in Slovakia: a brief report.

Secondary school students are at risk for mental health problems, especially nowadays, when we face an increase in mental health issues among adolescents and the general population. Mental health literacy (MHL) and help-seeking behavior are considered protective factors; however, we lack data on the levels of MHL in secondary school students and how MHL is developed in schools. This correlational and comparative study was designed to investigate mental health literacy (MHL) and help-seeking behavior among secondary school students in Slovakia. A convenient sample of 250 Slovak secondary school students responded to an anonymous online survey consisting of two scales (Mental Health Literacy Scale and Self-stigma of Seeking Help). Significant differences in mental health literacy (t(248) = 5.56; p ≤ 0.0) and stigma of seeking help (t(248) = -4.33; p ≤ 0.01) were observed between students in general and vocational secondary school. Students in general secondary school who attended optional psychology courses had the highest scores in mental health literacy (U = 987; p = 0.003). These preliminary findings showed that secondary students with a higher level of mental health literacy reported a lower level of self-stigmatization related to seeking professional mental health help (r = -0.339; p ≤ 0.01). Implementing mental health education into secondary school curricula can potentially help increase mental health literacy and decrease self-stigma of seeking help.

Motivation to succeed is not enough: motivated students need to know how to plan/organize their steps on their way to success.

The study is based on dispositional (career motivation) and social-cognitive (generalized self-efficacy) theories of personality, further on the expectancy-value theory of achievement motivation and future time perspective theory (task value, time, and study environment). The study aimed to explain the mechanism of the prediction relationship between motivation and students' performance. It was assumed that skills of planning and organizing (operationalized as generalized self-efficacy and learning strategies) mediate the prediction of motivation (career motivation and task value) on students' success (operationalized as academic achievement and employability). In two studies (N = 313, N = 219), the hypotheses of the mediation models were supported by structural equation modeling. Generally, the skills of organizing/planning fully mediated the students' performance, measured as academic achievement and employability (number of employers). The results show the importance of combining dispositional motivation characteristics with dynamic planning skills on the way to students' success. Traditional psychological predictors of performance, like general mental ability and conscientiousness, were not controlled. Higher education institutions could support motivated students on their way to success by teaching them how to plan and organize specific steps on their way to success.