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Abstract
Teachers play an important role in supporting their students across areas of functioning, including mental health and wellbeing. Because of their regular, direct connection to students, teachers have the opportunity to serve as liaisons between students and mental health support. Additionally, they also have the opportunity to address topics relevant to mental health and wellness in their classrooms. As such, this study aimed to examine teacher’s felt sense of capacity and preparedness to support student mental health and to explore potential factors that inform this teacher mental health self-efficacy, such as teaching environment, administrative support, education and training, and experience. Teacher mental health self-efficacy within this study is defined as a teacher’s self-identified belief in their ability to address the social, emotional, and behavioral needs of students, as well as to understand and integrate concepts related to mental health into their classroom. Using a sample population of teachers in the Southeastern United States, the study piloted an adapted measure of teacher mental health self-efficacy and found it to be internally consistent. The study also found relationships between teacher mental health self-efficacy and administrative support, collegial support, access to professional and community resources, education around mental health topics, and professional development related to mental health. The aim of the study was to explore the impact of these factors on teacher’s mental health self-efficacy as a way to direct future research, education, and professional development.