Formación docente de educación inicial para promover la salud mental
Abstract
Introduction: Child mental health is a global priority due to the sustained increase in emotional and behavioral symptoms at early ages and its impact on academic, social, and functional development throughout the life cycle. From the perspective of preventive psychiatry, early childhood education represents a strategic setting for promoting emotional well-being and early detection of signs of psychopathological risk.
Objective: The present study aimed to analyze teacher training in early childhood education to promote mental health from a psychiatric approach and to determine its relationship with pedagogical practices oriented towards children's emotional well-being.
Method: A quantitative, non-experimental, descriptive-correlational, and cross-sectional research was developed with a probabilistic sample of 120 teachers. Validated Likert-type scales were applied to measure training in child mental health and preventive pedagogical practices, utilizing descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation coefficient with a significance level of p < 0.05.
Results: The results showed that 64.2% of the teachers had a medium level of training, 21.7% a low level, and 14.1% a high level (mean = 3.28; SD = 0.64). In pedagogical practices, 58.3% showed a moderate level, 26.7% high, and 15.0% low (mean = 3.41; SD = 0.58). A significant positive correlation was identified between training and practices (r = 0.63; p < 0.001).
Conclusions: It is concluded that higher levels of teacher training are associated with greater implementation of preventive strategies, positioning teachers as key agents in the early promotion of child mental health.
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