The Fourth Annual Mental State of the World (MSW) Report from Sapien Labs, a not-for-profit organisation founded in 2016 with a mission to understand and enable the human mind, has been published, and it doesn’t make for great reading for those of us in the UK.
The MSW report provides trends and insights on the mental wellbeing of Internet-enabled populations around the globe.
What are the key regional findings on mental wellbeing ?
- The United Kingdom ranked #70 out of 71 countries in terms of Mental Health Quotient (49).
- Brazil had the highest percentage of Distressed/Struggling respondents at 35%.
According to the report’s abstract, “The expectation may have been that once the lockdowns lifted and the threat of COVID-19 subsided that our collective mental health would begin a recovery towards its pre-pandemic levels. However, the data across 71 countries argues otherwise – that the effects of diminished global mental wellbeing have become a new normal.”
Numerous wellbeing indicators in the UK have signalled that all is not well with our mental health. There is nothing short of a mental health crisis among the nation’s young people, and many employers and industries report that days lost to poor mental health are on the rise. In teaching alone, the evidence of mental health difficulties among staff is irreputable. Take a look at Education Support’s Teacher Wellbeing Index: mental health & wellbeing research (educationsupport.org.uk) for starters.
What are mental wellbeing levels like globally?
The global picture is little better. Findings include:
- Mental wellbeing remained at its post-pandemic low with yet again no sign of movement towards pre-pandemic levels.
- Younger generations, particularly those under age 35, saw the steepest declines in mental wellbeing during the Covid-19 pandemic while those over 65 stayed steady.
- At the top of the rankings are many Latin American and African countries while much of the core Anglosphere ranks in the bottom quartile.
So, we know there is a mental-wellbeing problem in the UK, and around the world, and if we are to have a hope of supporting children in their quest for a fulfilling life, we must act now to ease this burden. What does not help, however, is that the people on the ground charged with making this change feel disempowered and, in some if not many cases, under the clouds of poor mental wellbeing themselves.
How can schools and teachers help to improve mental wellbeing for young people?
According to Sapien Labs Founder and Chief Scientist Dr. Tara Thiagarajan, schools have a substantial role to play in enabling mental wellbeing. She explained, “This includes school policies on smartphones, ultra-processed food availability and the way schools foster friendships - three factors that substantially impact mental health outcomes. For example, the younger the age of first smartphone, and more frequent use, the more likely students are to have mental health problems as young adults - particularly problems with the Social Self (the dimension of mental wellbeing concerning how one relates to others) and specifically with suicidal thoughts and feeling detached from reality.”
While schools grapple with the inevitability of smartphone use among children and young people, and the somewhat predictable consequences both good and bad, there are other factors that may be chipping away at our mental state. Dr Thiagarajan explained, “More frequent ultra-processed food consumption diminishes both emotional and cognitive control, emotional resilience, and increases sadness which will affect school performance.”
No-one is suggesting here a complete ban on ultra-processed food, but this is most certainly food for thought. As a nation, have we failed to adequately regulate our food industry? Or are our supermarkets filled with affordable, healthy options for busy families to make nutritious meals during the demanding course of a typically busy day?
For Dr Thiagarajan, “Teachers should understand the impact of these various factors on mental wellbeing and think about how they can incorporate them into their teaching and classroom structure - for example, being strict about smartphone use in class if the school has not yet banned them, talking to students about food choices and thinking of activities that enhance the opportunities for in-person interaction and shared experiences among students that can foster friendships.
“Teachers can also advocate for school policies that enable better mental wellbeing along these lines. For example, stricter smartphone policies at the school level make the job of enforcing no smartphones in class much easier for the teacher.”
It would seem that the need to tackle food quality, smartphone use, and the deterioration of friendships, not to mention the poverty that so many young people are living with, is more urgent now than ever before. Taking action on all fronts, and then measuring the impact of that action, just might nudge us towards better mental health. Is this achievable? Can we start the process now? This has to be our priority, because from where we stand right now, if the Fourth Annual Mental State of the World (MSW) Report is anything to go by, we have a long journey back to health.
Find out more…
- The Mental State of the World report is now live and can be accessed at https://mentalstateoftheworld.report/. Over 500,000 respondents across nine regions, 71 countries surveyed (seven new this year), 13 languages included (four new this year), findings utilize the Global Mind Project’s Mental Health Quotient.
- Sapien Labs has a programme called Schools for Strong Minds that can help schools understand the specific challenges in their schools and make measurable changes. See Sapien Labs | Global Mind Project | Neuroscience | Human Brain Diversity for more.
About the author
Elizabeth Holmes
After graduating with a degree in Politics and International Relations from the University of Reading, Elizabeth Holmes completed her PGCE at the Institute of Education, University of London. She then taught humanities and social sciences in schools in London, Oxfordshire and West Sussex, where she ran the history department in a challenging comprehensive. Elizabeth specialises in education but also writes on many other issues and themes. As well as her regular blogs for Eteach and FEjobs, her books have been published by a variety of publishers and translated around the world. Elizabeth has also taught on education courses in HE and presented at national and international conferences.
