CNN 2000ats Page 59
Exhibit 4.3
Sources of Help When Sad or Depressed
Q350 (Students) Who are the people you could go to for help if you were feeling sad or
depressed?
Q430/430 (Parents/Teachers) Who are the people your child/your students would most like-
ly go to if they were feeling sad or depressed?
Student Base: All students
Parent Base: Secondary school parents
Teacher Base: All teachers
Students
Parents
Teachers
Base: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3961 . . . . . . . . .855 . . . . . . . . .1010
%
%
%
Sources of support
Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63 . . . . . . . . . . .86 . . . . . . . . . . .30
Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77 . . . . . . . . . . .46 . . . . . . . . . . .64
Educators . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33 . . . . . . . . . . .15 . . . . . . . . . . .80
Others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 . . . . . . . . . . .13 . . . . . . . . . . .18
None/no one . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 . . . . . . . . . . . .* . . . . . . . . . . . .1
Don't know/not sure . . . . . . . . .* . . . . . . . . . . . .2 . . . . . . . . . . . .-
No answer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .* . . . . . . . . . . . .- . . . . . . . . . . . .1
Mental Health Support Index . .1.9 . . . . . . . . . .1.6 . . . . . . . . . .1.9
Range of Support
Parents, teachers and students have differing views on who are students' sources of
support; they also differ in their understanding of the range of people to whom stu-
dents turn. An Overall Social Support Index was developed to calculate the number
of groups (family, friends, educators, others) who are perceived by each respondent as
sources of support in the three situations discussed (Exhibit 4.4). An individual score
can range from 0 (a student has no source of support in any of the three situations) to
12 ( a student has someone in each of the four groups to turn to across the three sit-
uations). A striking difference exists among students', parents' and teachers' percep-
tions. Students (78%) are more likely than parents (56%) or teachers (57%) to report
that they have a wide range of support. However, only two in ten students (20%)
have a range of support that extends to most groups across all three situations.
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