Enhancing Student Mental Health through Public Health Promotion across Educational Transitions

Public health promotion is essential in addressing mental health challenges among students, as they progress from school to university. The transition into these various educational stages can be daunting, posing threats to mental well-being. Within these environments, students encounter diverse issues such as discrimination, social pressures, and technological impacts on mental health. Such challenges are particularly evident within marginalized groups, including LGBTQI+ communities and individuals dealing with disordered eating, bullying, loneliness, or technology-induced stress. Recent studies highlight the urgency in addressing these pressing mental health problems and emphasize the lacking approach and availability of comprehensive mental health support systems within academic institutions.

This Research Topic aims to explore and develop effective public health promotion strategies that can address mental health concerns among students as they advance from school through to university. Key objectives include understanding how different factors like identity, eating disorders, bullying, and technological influence can vary across educational stages, as well as identifying proactive methods to mitigate such issues. This includes answering critical questions regarding the efficacy of current health promotion efforts and how they can be inclusive of all students, especially those who belong to vulnerable groups.

To gather further insights on public health promotion and mental health among students, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:

Mental health challenges specific to LGBTQI+ students and how they can be supported.

The impact of disordered eating and related health promotion in academic environments.

Strategies to combat bullying and its implications on mental well-being, including loneliness and social isolation.

The role of technology in student mental health and how to manage its adverse effects.

Comparative analyses of mental health promotion programs between schools and universities.

Socioeconomic disparities and experience of violence/GBV etc., and their impacts on mental health.

Keywords: student mental health, public health, health promotion, mental wellbeing

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.