Australian and Maltese teachers’ perspectives about their capabilities for mental health promotion in school settings Helen Askell-Williams a, * , Carmel Cefai b a Flinders Educational Futures Research Institute, School of Education, Flinders University, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide, South Australia 5001, Australia b EuroCentre for Educational Resilience and Socio-Emotional Health, University of Malta, Malta highlights graphical abstract  Schools are strategic settings for mental health promotion.  Teachers from both Australia and Malta support mental health promo- tion in schools.  Some teachers did not strongly endorse their capabilities to enact mental health promotion.  Country, Gender, Year level, but not Years of Experience influenced outcomes.  Teachers’ need professional educa- tion to support mental health promotion. article info Article history: Received 18 July 2013 Received in revised form 6 February 2014 Accepted 10 February 2014 Keywords: Mental health promotion Social and emotional education Teachers’ professional learning Teacher knowledge Teacher self-efficacy Hierarchical linear modelling abstract Policy makers identify schools as settings for promoting students’ positive mental health. However, mental health promotion is not typically addressed in pre- or in-service teacher education. This paper reports 1029 Australian and Maltese teachers’ perspectives about their capabilities for mental health promotion. Although participants reported favourable attitudes, many indicated concerns about capa- bilities such as Knowledge, Parenting Support and Self-efficacy. Multilevel modelling showed differences between county, gender and year level, but not between years of teaching experience. Curriculum ini- tiatives for mental health promotion require opportunities for teachers to build their capabilities in this relatively new domain of school and teacher responsibility. Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Each year, Oct 10th is World Mental Health Day: A day for global mental health education, awareness and advocacy (WFMH, 2007). This public profile of mental health promotion demon- strates that there is international concern about the prevalence and severity of mental health difficulties and the impact such difficulties have upon individuals, families, communities and societies. In everyday usage, the term ‘mental health’ can be ambiguous, as in some quarters this term has come to mean mental ill-health. This paper adopts the World Health Organisation (WHO) definition, which highlights that mental health is a positive state: Mental health is defined as a state of well-being in which every individual realises his or her own potential, can cope with the * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ61 8 8201 5671. E-mail address: helen.askell-williams@flinders.edu.au (H. Askell-Williams). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Teaching and Teacher Education journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tate http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2014.02.003 0742-051X/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Teaching and Teacher Education 40 (2014) 61e72