Building a Mental Health Literacy Model and Verbally Administered Scale for Children

This thesis developed a mental health literacy model and verbal scale for children aged 8-12 years, an age range often overlooked in child-focused mental health literacy research. The proposed model and verbal scale has practical implications for researchers, practitioners, and policy makers who work with young children and their mental health. The thesis develops our understanding of children's mental health knowledge needs by developing a model driven by research with experts, and by testing a verbal mental health literacy scale that can evaluate children’s understanding of mental health, including children who may have challenges with literacy.