Current Approaches to Research on Mental Health and Learning

One in five students in Canada will struggle with mental health challenges that interfere with their academic and social functioning (Waddle, McEwan, Shepherd, Offord, & Hua, 2005). Growing awareness of the role mental health has on academic achievement is evidenced by diverse methods researching mental health in educational environments ranging from kindergarten to post-secondary. Papers in this structured-poster symposium session profile the range of research on mental health and learning occurring across Canada in elementary, secondary, and post-secondary contexts: high school students experiencing and mitigating anxiety [Paper 1], university students using self-regulated learning to optimize their mental health around academic challenges and tasks [Paper 2], and developing teacher social-emotional competencies and the role these competencies have on student social-emotional well-being and mental health broadly [Paper 3].