The prevalence of mental health problems among children and adolescents is increasing day by day. Recent evidence suggests that students are the worst sufferers than the general population of the same age group. This study aimed to review and identify protective factors that mitigate mental health problems among students by synthesizing research from the past two decades. A systematic search was conducted in PubMed, Google Scholar, ERIC, and grey literature using defined keywords. After analyzing abstracts and full articles from available studies, 33 studies were selected for review. Results indicated that more than 20 protective factors across the home, school, and community environments and the individual level were identified as increasing students' mental health. These included family support, parenting style, teachers and peers support, school engagement, social support, social-connectedness, physical activity, nutritional status, happiness, optimism, meaning in life, resilience, positive activities, better family relationship, higher educational support, savouring, self-compassion, positive affect, mindfulness, positive relationships with others, and coping style. Broadly, protective factors from the home, school, and community environment influence the individual-centric protective factors. In this regard, to alleviate the negative mental states of the students, appropriate mental health interventions, programmes, or strategies focusing on the protective factors are strongly required.
Halder et al. (2026) studied this question.