1. Introduction

In the last decade, junior high school students' mental health illnesses have been a growing concern across the globe; similarly, in China. The age group between 12 and 15 years is a developmental stage at which emotional, social, and academic changes are being experienced most. Besides this, adolescents are also more vulnerable to mental health challenges such as anxiety, depression, and stress because of the pressures that involve academic performance, social dynamics, and the physical and emotional changes which come with puberty. The education system is very competitive; there are various exams such as the Zhongkao that further add to these vulnerabilities. With the increasing prevalence of mental health disorders in adolescents, there is an increasing emphasis on integrating mental health education into schools and other educational facilities. Recent studies indicate an alarming rise in anxiety, depression, and stress among adolescents; therefore, the establishment of mental health education is a necessary and required part of the school system [1-3].

Junior middle school (初中, chūzhōng) usually encompassing grades 7 to 9, students between ages 12 and 15 years old-is one of the most important periods in China's compulsory education. It also immediately follows primary school-senior high. At the same time, junior high school is a transitional stage for students to experience an extremely rapid development in academics, socialization, and emotional development. In addition, at this stage of development, these are the learners who may be vulnerable to different mental health problems. If these are not attended to, such conditions may have negative implications for learners at emotional, academic, and social levels. Therefore, the inclusions of mental health literacy within the curriculum at this stage are very important.

An effective implementation of mental health education in school, however, encompasses more than just curriculum changes. The leadership of a school, in particular, or the principal, has a very important role to play.

In China, the principal (校长, xiàozhǎng) is the highest leader in the school management hierarchy, with responsibility for both the general administration and academic management, as well as the welfare of students and staff. The key principals need to assume major responsibilities for shaping the school's culture and are expected to ensure that the school follows the standards and policies set by the national education. The role of principals does not only relate to academic leadership, yet it encompasses the initiation of a supportive and positive environment within the schools to take care of the intellectual and emotional development of the students.

The role of the principal is of significance in the matter of mental health. A principal shoulder the responsibility of fostering a school atmosphere that will give equally important prominence to students for their psychological health as it does to their academic achievements. With regard to this, it is preferable that principles start developing and implementing the mental health policies in the school; therefore, teacher training about mental health awareness could be provided where emotional and social skills development embedded in the curriculum. Despite principals playing a leading role in practices that allow open discussion of mental health, decrease stigma, and offer resources, including access to counseling and external mental health services, the organization of efforts in terms of parents, teachers and external mental health organizations should not be overlooked in developing a comprehensive system that would provide a wraparound support to students.

This study explores the role of school principals in enacting and maintaining mental health education for junior high schools. Focusing on the challenges they face, ranging from a lack of resources and proper training to the social stigma many people preconceive about mental illness, along with strategies principals use to address such barriers. It also looks at the influence of leadership on student outcomes through reflected perspectives of proactive and informed school leadership, which would strengthen psychological resilience and well-being in students. The critical role played by educational leaders in shaping mental health education is brought into focus drawing from existing literature.

2. Methodology

This paper adopts a qualitative approach to analyzing data from current journal publications on the role of school principals in mental health education. Through systematically review and undertaking content analysis of peer-reviewed articles in order to distill the main themes, focusing on how leaders influence student mental health outcomes and ensure effective policy implementation. The critical analysis underlines how principals shape mental health practices within schools and how best practice may be replicated across diverse educational contexts.

3. The Critical Role of Principals in Mental Health Leadership and Educator Support

While research focuses on the role of principals in the translation of comprehensive mental health frameworks into practice, it also mentions a number of factors that may reduce such efforts including the use of inconsistent terminology and sectoral differences between education and health. Similarly, studies raise a number of concerns that although principals are in support of the education in mental health, they face a number of challenges, including lack of resources as well as inadequate training for the purpose. Therefore, championing mental health policy cannot be overemphasized. Supported in this, schools' principals are able to champion and implement comprehensive mental health frameworks that would ensure both teachers and students get the support they need. Principals champion policy changes by calling for an increase of resources, forming alliances with out-of-school mental health organizations, and creating a school culture where emotional well-being is emphasized.

Teachers, considerably being one of the main bodies of educators, often times end up being the first-line clinically responsible persons for children with mental disorders. It will be upon principals now to ensure that teachers go through a good program on how to affirm, recognize, and respond to concerns on mental health.

In China, involving teachers’ participation in school-based professional development programs, further seeking to enhance a teacher's sense of efficacy in relation to teaching and supporting students on issues related to mental health education, is critical for improving both teacher efficacy and student support [4,5]. A multilevel analysis conducted on 255 principals and more than 2,700 teachers across several provinces in China, including Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Guangdong, showed that principal leadership indeed plays an important role in the effective engagement of teachers in professional development. This study kept on revealing how individual and collective teacher learning is positively influenced by principals who are highly involved in the development of people. Leadership practices create an enabling environment where teachers would more willingly participate in professional development around student mental health support [6].

Mental health in school, to a great extent, is made possible by principals’ support. This includes issues to do with diversity, dealing with harassment and discrimination as well as students’ relations. The importance of fostering inclusive, anti-bullying, and mental health-friendly environments within schools has been increasingly recognized. School principals are critical in leading these initiatives, particularly by collaborating with teachers, parents, and community organizations to implement policies that address both academic and emotional needs.

Studies [7,8] examines how various factors, including teachers, students, and the overall school climate, influence bullying victimization in Chinese schools. The results showed that positive school climate, supportive relationships between teachers and students, and proactive teacher involvement were related to lower levels of bullying problems. This study confirms the hypotheses that an inclusive and respectful school environment is a promising approach to reducing bullying victimization; improving school climate and strengthening the linkage between teachers and students can contribute effectively to substantial enhancement of student safety and well-being.

Partnerships with community mental health agencies, such as counseling offices, healthcare, and all other relevant agencies, are to be instituted by school administrators. These agreements are to be instituted for such reasons that students can be offered more specialized mental health services at times when such services are needed.

Schools in China collaborate increasingly with a local mental health center or a non-governmental organization (NGOs) to widen access to counseling, behavioral therapy, or even crisis intervention.

One example is Mindfront [9], a mental health service provider that collaborates with schools in Shanghai in offering mental health assessments, workshops, and teacher and student training. These collaborations can enhance the responsiveness of schools to their students' needs through complimenting wellbeing counseling programs, group psychotherapy, and other psycho-educative initiatives. This is one of the strong points where schools can liaise with mental health professionals for specialized services. Through this, as schools liaise, mental health professionals ensure they invest in students' care where the school is unable to do so.

A national campaign [10] that started in 2018 has ensured that approximately 95% of the schools in trial areas have established mental health facilities in collaboration with each community's organizations. It is a wish to see the disappearance of boundaries between the school and community-based services for continuity at every given stage in students' life-from in-school support by counsellors to specialist agencies for mental support.

4. Challenges Faced by School Principals

In China, resources to address mental health are scarce, especially in educational settings, remains a significant challenge. It has been outlined that the mental health system, underfunded and plagued by a dearth of personnel with proper training, has traditionally remained so for many years. Particularly, it receives very low per capita government investment in psychiatric services, compared to higher-income countries; there are serious gaps in the availability of mental health professionals, especially in rural areas. This directly influences schools in that the lack of trained counselors and psychologists restricts proper mental health support for students.

Furthermore, the extension of mental health services is also not balanced within the regions. For example, taking Hunan Province alone [11], it can be observed that available mental health staff and facilities are very poor compared to those in urban areas. It is this difference that can determine the distinction in how students obtain mental health service support, whereby on one hand, the dearth of mental health staff in rural areas can make adjustment difficult for counselors and psychologists.

Similar to many aspects of mental health, considerable stigma persists across several communities; administrators may encounter resistance from patients, students, or even educators over initiatives aimed at mental health education. The stigma of mental health in China is great and constitutes one of the major barriers for educational work in improving mental health literacy. With greater awareness, the cultural beliefs about mental health problems as a weakness resonate to create a barrier toward the school's free expression of the problem. This can hamper the working of the mental health program, and students are not able to seek needed help. The lack of inter-agency coordination between schools, families, and society further exacerbates this aspect in the effort to surmount stigma in educational settings. This can appreciably hamper the effectiveness of coordinated mental health efforts and introduce added complications to school administration [12].

Balancing educational success and emotional stability can be challenging for school principals, as often academic achievement is remembered and mentioned while students' emotional well-being is left by the wayside. The evidence clearly shows that good mental health and academic attainment go hand in hand: students who receive support for their emotional health achieve better academic results over time. School principals, therefore, need to consider how to make their settings supportive with regard to mental health within the school curriculum.

A 2023 report [13] by the American Psychological Association highlights that schools implementing comprehensive mental health programs not only improve students’ well-being but also boost the academic performance of students. By fostering a supportive environment that addresses both emotional and educational needs, schools will better prepare students for successful futures. Training educators to spot potential mental health problems and offering access to resources regarding mental health just as they offer access to academic support will go a long way toward accomplishing this.

Similarly, emotional stability and academic success have also become issues of emerging concern in China. With the whole development of students gradually being given more importance, various policies concerning education in China have gradually been developed with the view that emotional stability is not to be separated from continuous academic success. To this end, programs of Social-emotional learning (SEL), already identified as helping balance emotional regulation and ensuring academic success for the students, are fast becoming one of the expanding interventions into Chinese schools for developing this balance. The development of good relationships between teachers and students has also been identified as influential in students' psychological well-being, which again furthers academic engagement and success [14]. Nevertheless, resource constraints and cultural barriers to openly discussing one's mental health remain challenges in fully balancing this scale.

5. Practices in Mental Health Education

Interventions that embed mental health into the core fabric of schools, both at the individual community and whole school level fare best.

One such whole-school approach is that by UNICEF in collaboration with the Chinese Ministry of Education, a very successful SEL project in China, which integrates socio-emotional learning into school curricula besides developing students' psychological well-being and emotional resilience along with their academic performance.

The program rolled out in primary and middle schools across several provinces, building a supportive school environment through the infusion of mental health education into students' day-to-day lives. Emphasis is placed on teacher training, the development of student mental health awareness, community involvement, and making mental health support a core element within the school setting. Participating schools reported large gains in students' emotional stability, social skills, and academic performance. In addition, by equipping teachers with the competence to respond to both educational and emotional needs, the environment in the whole school has improved holistically. The project has been treated as a model for integrating mental health into education in China and influenced further policy developments of school mental health [15].

Engaging parents as well as other community stakeholders is indispensable in regard to the success of mental health education in schools. Studies [12,15-17] show mental health initiatives are far more effective when there is active parent involvement along with collaboration with external stakeholders, such as mental health professionals. By keeping the parents informed and involved, schools can offer further support to children in their hour of distress.

A study [8] highlights the importance of family-school collaboration, it builds supportive relationships among families and teachers to substantially improve student mental health outcomes. Parents strengthen mental health education at home, while external organizations offer additional capacity and expertise to enhance school-based mental health programs.

Such collaboration will equally be beneficial in bringing about a sense of co-responsibility among parents, educators, and external partners regarding the full scope of mental health care provided to children.

Research suggests that engagement tends to be driven to higher success levels and promotes ownership when varied students are engaging in decision-making in the process of promoting mental health. For example, schools that have integrated active student participation, or ASP, in the design and delivery of mental health programs—such as through a student council, peer support groups, and school assemblies—have seen positive effects not only on the students' emotional well-being but also on the whole ambience of the school itself [2,18]. School principals play a crucial role in creating these accountability venues. They can establish platforms where students actively participate in mental health discussions, providing input on activities and policies that impact their well-being. By integrating students’ voices into mental health initiatives, the schools are not only enhancing the efficiency of their programs, but also developing qualities of leadership and self-advocacy among the students by integrating the voices of the students into mental health work.

6. Conclusion

This paper underlines the importance of including mental health education in junior high schools and also gives real significance to the role of school principals in forming and advocating for mental health work. A whole-school approach encompassing active participation from students, educators, parents, and other external stakeholders is imperative if emotional wellness is to be advanced along with academic development. These barriers include stigma, lack of resources, and cultural resistance, which ultimately require comprehensive strategic leadership on the part of school principals to advocate for mental health as part of the core in school culture. Essentially, integrating mental health education into student agency and community involvement will result in more effective and sustainable outcomes for both academic and emotional development.