Lack of academic fulfillment in adolescents is a key problem which impedes their subsequent social and economic inclusion and hinders their quality of life. This is a pervasive problem, often rooted in the adversity and inherent inequality some youth experience, and further maintained through a lack of appropriate services, such as mental health education and resilience building programs. This becomes especially apparent in the case of particularly vulnerable groups, such as adolescents already facing mental health problems, whose specific concerns are not in any way addressed by the Romanian educational system. To this end, we aim to employ evidence-based, culturally sensitive strategies to address adolescents’ needs through mental health education and empowerment.

SCHOLARS Project Objectives 🔗

SCHOLARS aims to:

• (1) investigate the patterns of association between symptomatology and academic performance,
• (2) develop an intervention for fostering academic resilience and mental health literacy among the Romanian vulnerable social groups, and
• (3) raise social awareness and build towards decreasing stigma associated with mental health concerns.

With a primary focus on tackling adolescents’ mental health concerns, this project is in line with the mental health priorities for Europe, as highlighted by the World Health Organization.

SCHOLARS Project expected results 🔗

• (1) To answer empirical research questions regarding the link between academic resilience and patterns of adversity. More notably, we expect to determine the protective factors that make adolescents with mental health issues academically resilient. We also expect to provide novel empirical insights from modeling the longitudinal differential cascading academic effects for adolescents with different adversities or symptom clusters.
  To provide currently unavailable epidemiological data on the prevalence of mental health disorders among Romanian adolescents in a nationally-representative sample. To translate the results and better practice guidelines obtained within the current project into long-term solutions with societal impact. Relatedly, we expect, throughout the evolution of the project, to raise social awareness with respect to mental health and academic resilience and to contribute toward the de-stigmatization of mental health conditions among Romanian youth. We also expect to raise social awareness with respect to other factors that put young people at significant risk for emotional vulnerability and hinder their empowerment and personal growth, such as pertaining to stigmatized social categories, which is especially true in the case of ethnic or sexual minorities.
• (2) To develop a novel integrated digital platform hosting School Audit Toolkit for the screening of Mental Health and Academic Resilience that facilitates fast data collection and guidance for students as well as school staff. We also expect to deliver the readily applicable and available products, which can directly contribute towards the upscaling of the proposed solutions, on a nationwide level. To develop the SCHOLARS intervention integrating previous efforts and focusing on mental health literacy as an essential factor underlying Academic Resilience. The SCHOLARS intervention developed within this project will be made available to interested researchers and educators, in order to ensure its continued implementation on local, national, and international levels.
• (3) To significantly enhance the careers of young researchers and Ph.D. students, who will consistently be involved in all planned activities, and will benefit from actively participating in a stimulating environment of high scientific quality. Within this project, we also strive to promote an egalitarian environment, aiming to promote and facilitate the careers of young female researchers and Ph.D. students.
• (4) To deliver high-quality scientific outputs, which contribute to the advancement of scientific knowledge in psychology and educational sciences, and support Romania’s active participation in the European Research Area, as well as the international scientific community.