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Background <p>The likelihood of children having a mental health problem is steadily increasing. Relevant mental health-related programs are being developed worldwide to limit this public health crisis. However, the definition of the collocation “mental health” provided by children has rarely been explored. Understanding how children describe mental health can inform the development of new interventions more adapted to this age group.</p> Objective <p>The aim of the study was to explore how “mental health” is defined by elementary school children.</p> Methods <p>This was a qualitative survey using the single, written open-ended question “What is mental health to you?”. From June 18th to July 5th 2024, we contacted urban and rural elementary schools from the academy of Bordeaux, France, and obtained the approval to conduct the study among pupils of the last two years of elementary school (9-11 years). We used the Braun and Clarke’s five phase thematic analysis process: data familiarization, generating codes, attributing the codes to categories, attributing the categories to pre-established and new themes, and writing down the findings. The Child Focused Mental Health Literacy Model was used as the theoretical framework for deductive analyses.</p> Results <p>We obtained the responses of 254 children. The majority of them wrote that mental health was the health of the brain. They also mentioned both positive and negative mental health, from feeling good to being ill. Physical health and mental health often overlapped. Mental health was associated with emotions and neurological diseases, and was described mostly by physical symptoms. The second most frequent response was that children merely did not know what mental health is.</p> Conclusions <p>Our study highlighted the diversity of definitions of mental health among children. This suggests that before implementing school-based programs, it would be necessary to explain to children what mental health is. Using the theory of mental health literacy and a cocreation approach, mental health interventions could be more effective in preventing psychological diseases and promoting mental well-being.</p>

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Children’s Definitions of Mental Health: a Qualitative Content Analysis

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年10月23日

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  • Alix Joseph,
  • Ilaria Montagni

摘要

Background

The likelihood of children having a mental health problem is steadily increasing. Relevant mental health-related programs are being developed worldwide to limit this public health crisis. However, the definition of the collocation “mental health” provided by children has rarely been explored. Understanding how children describe mental health can inform the development of new interventions more adapted to this age group.

Objective

The aim of the study was to explore how “mental health” is defined by elementary school children.

Methods

This was a qualitative survey using the single, written open-ended question “What is mental health to you?”. From June 18th to July 5th 2024, we contacted urban and rural elementary schools from the academy of Bordeaux, France, and obtained the approval to conduct the study among pupils of the last two years of elementary school (9-11 years). We used the Braun and Clarke’s five phase thematic analysis process: data familiarization, generating codes, attributing the codes to categories, attributing the categories to pre-established and new themes, and writing down the findings. The Child Focused Mental Health Literacy Model was used as the theoretical framework for deductive analyses.

Results

We obtained the responses of 254 children. The majority of them wrote that mental health was the health of the brain. They also mentioned both positive and negative mental health, from feeling good to being ill. Physical health and mental health often overlapped. Mental health was associated with emotions and neurological diseases, and was described mostly by physical symptoms. The second most frequent response was that children merely did not know what mental health is.

Conclusions

Our study highlighted the diversity of definitions of mental health among children. This suggests that before implementing school-based programs, it would be necessary to explain to children what mental health is. Using the theory of mental health literacy and a cocreation approach, mental health interventions could be more effective in preventing psychological diseases and promoting mental well-being.