1) Positive Affect- refers to the positive emotions that an individual feels or displays. Emotions like joy and excitement are thought to be tied to positive affect.

2) Negative Affect- refers to emotions like anxiety and sadness.

3) Life Satisfaction- is a result of the individual’s appraisal of the quality of his or her life situation

SWB is thought to contribute to resiliency, as well as lower levels of internalizing (e.g., anxiety) and externalizing (e.g., aggression) behaviors (Antaramian, Huebner, Hills, & Valois, 2010).

Huebner, one of the leading SWB researchers, believes that students’ SWB should be regularly evaluated in addition to routine screenings for mental illness symptoms (Huebner, Gilman, Reschly, & Hall, 2009).

Retrieved from: TOT 1: Duel Factor Model of Mental Health (2019)

General Discussion Post:

Review the Administration Manual for the MSLSS. Administer the MSLSS to a child in grade 3 through high school.

• What information might a school team get by using the MSLSS to screen all of the sixth graders in the district?

-The most important information from the MSLSS would be how the child perceives him or herself compared to their peers. At the sixth-grade age level, the way a student’s peer perceives them is typically the most important thing to them. Depending on how a child answers the questions in this assessment, it allows clinicians to obtain a basic understanding of what the child thinks about themselves, their family, and their friends. It allows the clinicians to make an initial judgment about the child’s mental health state.

• How do you think this screening could be done?

-I think the students should conduct this assessment with a proctor privately or in a secluded room in written (or survey) form. At the sixth-grade age, I believe kids are less likely to answer truthfully when surrounded by their peers. Kids want to feel cool, so they change their answers to appear a certain way in the eyes of their peers.

• Who might be interested in the results of this screening? Why?

-I think parents and teachers should be very aware of the results of this screening. Sometime kids put on an act in front of adults to make it seem like their lives are going well, but deep down they struggle with all types of insecurities. By providing parents and teachers these results, I think it could help ease into a conversation that could prevent self-harm or harm towards others.

• What types of programs, services, or experiences (e.g., an all school assembly or an invited speaker) might be the consequence of group MSLSS administration?

-By providing this assessment in a group format, I do not believe the sixth-grade students will answer truthfully. They are trying everything to appear “cool” or “normal” in the eyes of their peers, so conducting this assessment would not be effective. I have had times in school where I’ve had to fill out a survey in a classroom setting and I wanted to answer the way I knew my peers would answer instead of being isolated and answering the way that I wanted to truthfully answer. By providing this assessment in a group format, it would be neglecting the child and potentially promoting children to answer the way they think they should answer instead of the way they want to answer. This type of group format could sway answers and prevent the true intent of the forum to be seen.

• How do you see SWB being related to occupational engagement and occupational identity as defined in MOHO? Why would an OT practitioner care about this stuff anyway? (Note: for your reference, a MOHO chapter is posted in the resource folder for this week; Please also use Chapter 3 in Bazyk beginning on page 46. The Bazyk selection discusses mental health development).

-I believe subjective well-being (SWB) is critical in understanding the importance of meaningful occupations. By understanding what makes people happy and finding their true-life passions, it allows OT’s to better understand how mental health affects individual participation. SWB is thought to be comprised of three components: 1) positive affect, 2) negative affect, and 3) life satisfaction (Antaramian, Huebner, Hills, & Valois, 2010). By finding what makes individual’s happy, we as OTs can gain a better understanding of what we need to do as practitioners to fully understand mental illness and why people are unsatisfied or unhappy with their participation. MOHO explains in its theory that life is dynamic and constantly evolving. Due to that idea, it means that people are constantly put in situations where they need to change either their environment or their occupations within that environment. It also works to help an individual find a new occupational identity. In finding a new identity, it can allow for new opportunities to arise and help a client find a new passion. Its basic principles are three individual steps that all come together as one idea. The steps include, exploration, competency, and achievement. Within these three constructs, we as OT’s can see the full picture. Exploration is the first step where a client will try new things to see if he/she likes the new occupations. Then they begin the competency stage, where they begin doing the things that they discovered in exploration. Finally, in the achievement stage, they develop the skills and habits required to continue the newly acquired task or skill into their daily lives. MOHO works hard to establish these new routines and habits to create change. SWB and MOHO work hand in hand to help individuals find new happiness once their lives change. Change is inevitable, but how we deal with change is how we can determine how mentally stable a person is. These two ideas are way to determine if a client has positive effects and it satisfied with their life. Their ability to explore new things and establish them into their lives provides a ton of information for OT’s to work with.

References:

Antaramian, Huebner, Hills, & Valois (2010). A dual-factor model of mental health:toward a more comprehensive understanding of youth functioning. AM J Orthopsychiatry, 80 (4): 462-472. DOI: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20950287.

"There are huge differences between a teenager who is not depressed or anxious and one who bounds out of bed in the morning with twinkling eyes; between an adolescent who says no to drugs and one who says yes to meaningful involvement in family, school, and community activities; and between one who costs society little and one who actually benefits it" (pg. 498).