Provide a Broad Conceptualisation of Mental Health and the Role of Protective and Risk Factors In Mental Health and Wellbeing.

There are various protective factors that have an impact on mental health. These factors promote resilience, acting as buffers against mental health problems despite negative stressors. The factors are contextually bound and have a mutually enhancing effect on one another. Individual protective factors include an easy temperament, flexibility, a sense of humour, and spirituality. Family bonds also play a role, with positive family bonds, the mother’s personality, positive discipline and a nurturing environment acting as protective factors. Protective community factors include a good school, positive role models, social cohesion, and a political stability.

Community psychology emphasises the need to be proactive and to promote wellness. Wellness anchors the one end of the hypothetical mental health continuum, and pathology the other. Wellness has three positive features, namely behavioural markers (eg. Sleeping well), psychological markers (eg. Satisfaction with oneself and one’s existence) and psychological markers.

There are 5 main pathways to wellness, forming wholesome early attachments is the first. Here the relationship with the primary caregiver is of great importance. According to Roger’s Theory, attachment acts as the foundation of the self-concept. Attachment changes during the various developmental stages. The second pathway is acquiring age-appropriate cognitive and interpersonal skills and a sense of efficacy. A facilitative environment that encourages competence is very important, as is the school, where children obtain skills, learn and grow. The third pathway is a favourable social environment. Such a positive environment facilitates positive growth and adaptation. Here again the school is important, with teachers acting as positive role models. Positive interpersonal relationships are also very important. The 4th pathway is empowerment. When people are empowered, they have a sense of self-efficacy and mastery, rendering them capable of making decisions, exercising choices, and accepting self-responsibility. An authoritarian parenting style inhibits the growth of empowerment in children. The 5th pathway is effective stress coping strategies. Coping strategies enable one to adapt to stressful situations, thereby presenting one with more options. People can cope better with stress when they perceive themselves as having an internal locus of control. Sound attachment and competence helps one to cope with diverse stressors, and the successful resolution of stress leads to more effective strategies in the future.

There also exist risk factors which occur when the individual develops negative outcomes to the factors mentioned above. Some risks are static (eg. Family history), while others (eg. Bullying) are modifiable with the help of strategic interventions. Some risk factors are continuous, and others are once off, and there also exists cumulative factors. The developmental stages of risk factors differ. Risk factors occur within the individual (eg. Younger people and women are at a higher risk), the family (eg. Paternal criminality and maternal mental disorders), and the environment (eg. Lack of education, poverty, and pollution).

Protective and risk factors determine a person’s ability to adapt/withstand/adjust to negative stressors.