Search

Objective: This study examined the nature and prevalence of polydrug use in 12–14 year old Australians. Method: Three Australian school surveys (2006, n=4091; 2009, n=5635; 2017, n=1539; age 12–14 years) spanning 11 years were used. Substances included alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, inhalant, and other illicit substances. Risk factors included depressed mood, low emotional control, poor family management and conflict, and academic performance. Latent class analysis was used to discern classes. Regression analyses were used to test the association of risk factors with classes. Results: Consistent across surveys, there was a class of adolescents who engaged in wide-ranging polydrug use, with prevalences ranging from 0.44% (2006) to 1.78% (2017). Emotional control problems, low academic performance, and poor family management were elevated in the polydrug class. Conclusion: A small proportion of 12–14-year-old adolescents engage in polydrug use. Interventions focusing on family risks and emotional control problems may be beneficial., Funding agencies:National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia APP1087781Centre for Inclusive Education, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

It is an expectation of Australian schools to address student cyberbullying. However, schools may struggle to be effective if other societal systems are not aligned and supportive. Within this ecological framing, this qualitative study used interview and focus group methods to gather secondary school stakeholder perspectives about the role the legal system plays in helping schools to prevent and intervene in student cyberbullying. School leaders, specialist staff, teachers, students and parents participated. A thematic analysis uncovered three themes with implications for improving school capacity with the help of society’s legal system: What schools can and cannot do to reduce cyberbullying; the role of police in school-based cyberbullying management; and the need for education and legal inter-systemic collaborations to meet school-identified challenges in addressing student cyberbullying.

Self-report is seen as important in assessments of psychopathology but individuals with intellectual disability may have difficulty with standard questionnaires. This paper reports on the administration and subsequent modifications to several established self-report measures of mental health. Methods : The participants were 57 children with intellectual disability aged 10 to 13 years. They completed the Children’s Depression Inventory, Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale, Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, Intellectual Disability Mood Scale, and Moods and Feelings Questionnaire. Results : Difficulties with the instruments were identified, including complex wording and item structure, ambiguity and working memory demands. Adaptations were made to the instruments and administration procedures. In a second administration there were improvements in children’s ability to respond. The modified questionnaires demonstrated acceptable to good internal consistency and were strongly correlated. Conclusions : Self-report measures of mental health can be completed by children with intellectual disability but may need pilot testing and modifications to make them more appropriate for this population.

Cyberbullying is a harmful practice to which schools must respond. Australia does not have a cyberbullying-specific law, so schools navigate their responses within a range of laws not created for the online world, nor for youth. In this study, the murky legal environment of youth cyberbullying was problematised from perspectives found within two Australian secondary school communities. School leaders, key staff, teachers, students, and parents participated in interviews or focus groups held to gather their views about whether a new cyberbullying-specific law was needed to help reduce youth cyberbullying. A thematic analysis found three themes: that an educational approach was favoured over a legal one; that current laws mediated a constrained discussion about the benefit a new cyberbullying-specific law would have for schools and that there were school-identified unmet spaces where the law should be contributing better solutions to youth cyberbullying. Legal responses with implications for reducing youth cyberbullying are discussed.

A commonly suggested strategy for addressing bullying is for victims to seek help from a trusted person. Despite this recommendation, there are a group of adolescent victims who choose not to seek help. This study aimed to identify factors associated with not seeking help among adolescents who experienced bullying victimisation. A sub-sample of youth who self-reported being bullied (N = 652) was drawn from an Australian nationally representative household survey of adolescents aged 11–17 years (N = 2,967). Adolescent participants and their parents completed survey items on demographics, bullying experiences, mental health, school, and family characteristics. Overall, 45.3% of bullied adolescents did not seek help. Neither the type, frequency, nor levels of distress caused by the bullying victimisation were associated with help-seeking. Age was no longer associated with increased odds of not seeking help for bullying victimisation, after controlling for mental health, social, and interpersonal functioning. In a multivariate logistic regression model examining demographic, mental health, social, and interpersonal factors, those with poorer prosocial skills, lower perceived social support, and higher internet use had increased odds of not seeking help for bullying victimisation (OR = 2.81, 95% CI = 1.00, 7.93; OR = 2.70, 95% CI = 1.32, 5.52; and OR = 2.19, 95% CI = 1.11, 4.33, respectively). Identifying and supporting young people who are socially isolated and/or have poorer prosocial skills may improve help-seeking among adolescents who experience bullying victimisation. This approach has the potential to address victimisation earlier in its course thereby reducing consequent harm.

School bullying is a global phenomenon with teachers often at the forefront of responding to this behavior. It is, therefore, important that teachers are able both to understand and articulate what bullying is and to recognize bullying behavior. Ninety-five Australian early childhood teachers participated in an online survey to define bullying, fighting and identify the differences between the two behaviors. They were also asked to identify from 20 scenarios whether the behaviors depicted traditional bullying behaviors, cyberbullying behaviors, non-bullying face-to-face behaviors or non-cyberbullying behaviors. Results found that teachers described some of the three characteristics of bullying, that is, the intention to harm, power difference, and repetition; however, many teachers had difficulty clearly explaining the distinguishing differences between bullying and fighting. The majority of teachers identified the bullying behaviors in the scenarios; however, some teachers misinterpreted some non-bullying behaviors as bullying. The need to increase teacher’s knowledge of bullying to support the prevention and intervention of bullying are discussed.

This article reports on a secondary analysis of qualitative research about five African young adults with refugee backgrounds who storied through semi-structured interviews their career transition in the complex, everchanging systems of their migration journeys. Qualitative descriptors of career adaptability and the systems of the Systems Theory Framework informed data analysis. Findings revealed that the recursive interaction between the five career adaptability dimensions occurred within complex personal, social, geographic and socio-political systems of the migration journey. Findings extend theoretical understandings of career adaptability as a process deeply embedded in complex contextual systems. Suggestions inform career practitioners and future career research.

Early childhood education and care is recognised as extremely important for the health, education and welfare of all children. As Australia is a multicultural society then the early childhood education and care workforce needs to reflect the proportion of the population who were born overseas in non-English speaking countries, often referred to Culturally and Linguistic Diverse individuals. With the staff shortages in the sector we propose that supporting students in initial teacher training from a CALD background is important. Several ways to accomplish this goal are discussed.

Bullying among children and adolescents is a significant and serious social phenomenon that has continued to be a problem despite the implementation of current intervention programs. The words bullying and cyberbullying have been controversial terms with researchers and the general public holding different views of what they mean. The problem is that these differences could potentially lead to inconsistent responding approaches and impact the effectiveness of prevention and intervention measures. Previous research has found that parents and teachers may have a different understanding of the key concepts of bullying and cyberbullying than researchers and have difficulty in applying these definitions to complex real-life scenarios. However, there are an extremely limited number of studies that have investigated students’ understanding of bullying applied to real-life scenarios and even scarcer studies examining young people's understanding of cyberbullying applied to complex scenarios. The current study thus used a scenario-based questionnaire which was constructed using the Delphi method (that is, a consensus of experts) to examine children and adolescents’ ability to accurately identify bullying and cyberbullying situations from non-bullying situations and their perceived seriousness of these situations. The impact of age and gender on identification and the level of serious of bullying scenarios was also examined. Results indicated that children and adolescents have a limited ability to apply a given standard researchers’ bullying and cyberbullying definition to real life scenarios. Findings also demonstrated that young people's abilities differed significantly depending on their age, but not on their gender. Girls perceived both traditional and cyberbullying scenarios as more serious than boys, and the perceived level of seriousness also differed significantly based on their age.

Cognitive control training has gained traction as an intervention for reducing anxiety and depression vulnerability in adults. There are, however, a limited number of studies investigating such training interventions for reducing symptomology of anxiety and depression in children and adolescents. Thus, we aimed to provide a robust review and qualitative synthesis of the available research in young people. Twelve articles met the inclusion criteria, and all were randomised control trials. Evidence of the efficacy of cognitive control training for relief of symptoms are reported separately for anxiety, depression, and other related psychological factors, and on the basis of type of cognitive control training paradigm. A lack of standardisation in relation to type of intervention, duration and context, outcome measures and population was observed. Results are discussed in terms of these variations and recommendations for future research are provided.

Cyberbullying as a behavior among students has emerged in the last 20 years and it seems as difficult to prevent or reduce its occurrence as any other form of bullying. Although policy makers, politicians and researchers now call for a whole of community response, describing cyberbullying as a public health problem, schools seem to be bearing the brunt of the issues and responsibility for its negative consequences. While it is true that schools are best positioned to educate young people, it is also true that it takes a whole village to raise a child. When adults first realized that cyberbullying behaviors were occurring, outside of school hours and outside of school grounds, many schools were reluctant to involve themselves in managing these incidents. However, as it was increasingly realized that the consequences of cyberbullying were being manifested by students at school and was affecting students while they were at school, schools took a more active role. Currently many schools now advise parents to bring all cyberbullying incidents to the school for staff to deal with. But have schools actually taken on too much responsibility to raise children in our society?

This chapter discusses cyberbullying of teachers. The deteriorating status of teachers is shown with the consequences of more student violence towards teachers. With the increase in technology use and subsequent ability to abuse teachers, students and parents can now also cyberbully teachers. An Australian study of the prevalence of cyberbullying of teacher is presented. There is some evidence of the prevalence and impact of cyberbullying of adults in the workplace, however, there are few studies that have examined cyberbullying of teachers by students and parents. We do not know how teachers are affected by cyberbullying in these instances, in terms of wellbeing and ability to work, but also the impact on teachers’ social media involvement. This chapter examines the frequency and impact of cyberbullying on secondary school teachers in Australia when students and parents were the perpetrators. Additionally, the study looked at whether the threat of cyberbullying led to changes in social media involvement. A 16-item survey was conducted online using Key Survey with advertisements posted in Australian Education Union Newsletters and later through Facebook. Completed surveys were returned by 129 teachers with 24% (31) indicating they had been cyberbullied by students or parents in their role as a secondary school teacher. The survey included a definition of cyberbullying and asked about participants’ experience of cyberbullying by parents and students (including ex-students) and the impact this had on their wellbeing and ability to work. Teachers who were cyberbullied were more concerned about future cyberbullying than those who had not been cyberbullied. The most common medium for cyberbullying was Facebook followed by phone, email and the Rate My Teacher website. Those who were bullied by both parents and students showed a greater negative impact on wellbeing and ability to work, than those who were bullied by students only. Participants who were cyberbullied reporte

Effective drama teaching and learning needs physical space: space for performance, expression, interaction and exploration. However, the Sri Lankan classroom environment remains largely unexplored in terms of investigating the relationship between the physical classroom environment and the teaching and learning of drama when process drama is the method of instruction. This article is based on the findings of a non-randomised control group intervention study, which involved forty classroom observations in secondary schools in Sri Lanka. The observations showed that students who were able to use the school’s open-air theatre for the entire intervention period engaged in far more collaborative, energetic, performative and creative behaviours than other classes who were in a confined classroom space with desks and chairs crammed closely together. Implications for the teaching of drama by different methods are discussed in the Sri Lankan context.

Any institutional policy will only be a paper tiger unless the intended recipients of the policy know and understand it. Student anti-bullying policies at universities in Australia have been researched to determine the quality and usability of the content, but research is lacking in how students understand and use these policies. Bullying amongst students has been identified globally as an issue at universities, however, little has been done to determine students’ knowledge and experience of bullying and the related policies and services universities provide. The aim of this paper is to fill that gap in knowledge, with the hope that by understanding a student’s perspective, identified blocks to reporting may be eliminated. This study surveyed 297 Australian university students about their knowledge of their university’s anti-bullying policies existence and location, their personal and witnessed experienced of bullying, how they handled it, and their knowledge and thoughts on how bullying information is presented to students at their university. The results found students lacked knowledge about anti- bullying policies and practices in their university. The results also highlighted assumptions students make about what their university offers in regard to policies and services. This paper indicates that universities need to publicise their policies and better educate their students on bullying and their related anti-bullying policies.

Policy is an important part of prevention and intervention when it comes to peer bullying amongst university students. Therefore, the contents of these policies need to be informative, and easy to find, understand and use. With the United Kingdom having a low prevalence of peer bullying at university when compared to other countries, determining whether the quality of a university student anti-bullying policy is related to the prevalence, may help universities in other countries reduce bullying prevalence. This study adds to the body of knowledge by analysing the content and usability of student anti-bullying policies of 39 universities in the UK. The results were then compared to the results of a similar study conducted with Australian universities, to determine similarities and difference, and where improvements could be made. Through this, and future studies, it is hoped that a relationship can be determined between the quality of university student anti-bullying policies, and the prevalence of bullying. It is also hoped that the results of this study will allow universities to identify where their policy may be improved and promote the importance of having a bully-free culture on campus.

Reducing Cyberbullying in Schools: International Evidence-Based Best Practices provides an accessible blend of academic rigor and practical application for mental health professionals, school administrators and educators, giving them a vital tool in stemming the problem of cyberbullying in school settings. It features a variety of international, evidence-based programs that can be practically implemented into any school setting. In addition, the book looks at a broad array of strategies, such as what can be learned from traditional bullying programs, technological solutions, policy and legal solutions, and more.Provides overviews of international, evidence-based programs to prevent cyberbullying in schoolsPresents an academically rigorous examination that is also practical and accessibleIncludes technological and legal strategies to stem cyberbullying in schoolsLooks at the prevalence and consequences of cyberbullying

Reducing Cyberbullying in Schools: International Evidence-Based Best Practices provides an accessible blend of academic rigor and practical application for mental health professionals, school administrators and educators, giving them a vital tool in stemming the problem of cyberbullying in school settings. It features a variety of international, evidence-based programs that can be practically implemented into any school setting. In addition, the book looks at a broad array of strategies, such as what can be learned from traditional bullying programs, technological solutions, policy and legal solutions, and more.Provides overviews of international, evidence-based programs to prevent cyberbullying in schoolsPresents an academically rigorous examination that is also practical and accessibleIncludes technological and legal strategies to stem cyberbullying in schoolsLooks at the prevalence and consequences of cyberbullying

Reducing Cyberbullying in Schools: International Evidence-Based Best Practices provides an accessible blend of academic rigor and practical application for mental health professionals, school administrators and educators, giving them a vital tool in stemming the problem of cyberbullying in school settings. It features a variety of international, evidence-based programs that can be practically implemented into any school setting. In addition, the book looks at a broad array of strategies, such as what can be learned from traditional bullying programs, technological solutions, policy and legal solutions, and more.Provides overviews of international, evidence-based programs to prevent cyberbullying in schoolsPresents an academically rigorous examination that is also practical and accessibleIncludes technological and legal strategies to stem cyberbullying in schoolsLooks at the prevalence and consequences of cyberbullying

Reducing Cyberbullying in Schools: International Evidence-Based Best Practices provides an accessible blend of academic rigor and practical application for mental health professionals, school administrators and educators, giving them a vital tool in stemming the problem of cyberbullying in school settings. It features a variety of international, evidence-based programs that can be practically implemented into any school setting. In addition, the book looks at a broad array of strategies, such as what can be learned from traditional bullying programs, technological solutions, policy and legal solutions, and more.Provides overviews of international, evidence-based programs to prevent cyberbullying in schoolsPresents an academically rigorous examination that is also practical and accessibleIncludes technological and legal strategies to stem cyberbullying in schoolsLooks at the prevalence and consequences of cyberbullying

Reducing Cyberbullying in Schools: International Evidence-Based Best Practices provides an accessible blend of academic rigor and practical application for mental health professionals, school administrators and educators, giving them a vital tool in stemming the problem of cyberbullying in school settings. It features a variety of international, evidence-based programs that can be practically implemented into any school setting. In addition, the book looks at a broad array of strategies, such as what can be learned from traditional bullying programs, technological solutions, policy and legal solutions, and more.Provides overviews of international, evidence-based programs to prevent cyberbullying in schoolsPresents an academically rigorous examination that is also practical and accessibleIncludes technological and legal strategies to stem cyberbullying in schoolsLooks at the prevalence and consequences of cyberbullying

Reducing Cyberbullying in Schools: International Evidence-Based Best Practices provides an accessible blend of academic rigor and practical application for mental health professionals, school administrators and educators, giving them a vital tool in stemming the problem of cyberbullying in school settings. It features a variety of international, evidence-based programs that can be practically implemented into any school setting. In addition, the book looks at a broad array of strategies, such as what can be learned from traditional bullying programs, technological solutions, policy and legal solutions, and more.Provides overviews of international, evidence-based programs to prevent cyberbullying in schoolsPresents an academically rigorous examination that is also practical and accessibleIncludes technological and legal strategies to stem cyberbullying in schoolsLooks at the prevalence and consequences of cyberbullying

Reducing Cyberbullying in Schools: International Evidence-Based Best Practices provides an accessible blend of academic rigor and practical application for mental health professionals, school administrators and educators, giving them a vital tool in stemming the problem of cyberbullying in school settings. It features a variety of international, evidence-based programs that can be practically implemented into any school setting. In addition, the book looks at a broad array of strategies, such as what can be learned from traditional bullying programs, technological solutions, policy and legal solutions, and more.Provides overviews of international, evidence-based programs to prevent cyberbullying in schoolsPresents an academically rigorous examination that is also practical and accessibleIncludes technological and legal strategies to stem cyberbullying in schoolsLooks at the prevalence and consequences of cyberbullying

Reducing Cyberbullying in Schools: International Evidence-Based Best Practices provides an accessible blend of academic rigor and practical application for mental health professionals, school administrators and educators, giving them a vital tool in stemming the problem of cyberbullying in school settings. It features a variety of international, evidence-based programs that can be practically implemented into any school setting. In addition, the book looks at a broad array of strategies, such as what can be learned from traditional bullying programs, technological solutions, policy and legal solutions, and more.Provides overviews of international, evidence-based programs to prevent cyberbullying in schoolsPresents an academically rigorous examination that is also practical and accessibleIncludes technological and legal strategies to stem cyberbullying in schoolsLooks at the prevalence and consequences of cyberbullying

Reducing Cyberbullying in Schools: International Evidence-Based Best Practices provides an accessible blend of academic rigor and practical application for mental health professionals, school administrators and educators, giving them a vital tool in stemming the problem of cyberbullying in school settings. It features a variety of international, evidence-based programs that can be practically implemented into any school setting. In addition, the book looks at a broad array of strategies, such as what can be learned from traditional bullying programs, technological solutions, policy and legal solutions, and more.Provides overviews of international, evidence-based programs to prevent cyberbullying in schoolsPresents an academically rigorous examination that is also practical and accessibleIncludes technological and legal strategies to stem cyberbullying in schoolsLooks at the prevalence and consequences of cyberbullying

Reducing Cyberbullying in Schools: International Evidence-Based Best Practices provides an accessible blend of academic rigor and practical application for mental health professionals, school administrators and educators, giving them a vital tool in stemming the problem of cyberbullying in school settings. It features a variety of international, evidence-based programs that can be practically implemented into any school setting. In addition, the book looks at a broad array of strategies, such as what can be learned from traditional bullying programs, technological solutions, policy and legal solutions, and more.Provides overviews of international, evidence-based programs to prevent cyberbullying in schoolsPresents an academically rigorous examination that is also practical and accessibleIncludes technological and legal strategies to stem cyberbullying in schoolsLooks at the prevalence and consequences of cyberbullying

When writing about oneself, it is difficult to be objective. So this is just my story of my time as a school psychologist in Queensland Australia. I hope it will be a good “read” and that some lessons I was late in learning could be learnt more quickly by some people starting out in their careers as school psychologists. I have always doubted myself and perhaps have not made the most of every opportunity that I was lucky enough to have been given. But I think on reflection perhaps I didn’t do so bad after all. Helping others as a school psychologist is the most rewarding career and life fulfilling job. Although from different countries and states in America I think there are many similarities with all the women in this book, both from a personal level of the time we have lived in and the careers we have chosen.

Excessively anxious adolescents are frequently present in secondary school classrooms but are often overlooked. Teachers with knowledge and understanding of anxiety disorders are well placed to support these students in the classroom through identification, referral to specialist support staff, and assisting students in management of this internalising disorder. It is important that teachers are equipped with the knowledge to identify anxiety disorders in students in secondary schools given its increasing prevalence. This chapter provides an overview of how teachers and other school staff can support these students. It first gives an overview of excessive anxiety, then examines how teachers can identify students with such anxiety. Next, the teacher’s role of referring these students for extra help within the school to pastoral care teams or school psychologists, or outside the school to community agencies is examined. Finally, this chapter provides some suggestions for how teachers can assist anxious students by maintaining a supportive classroom climate for all students. These include some special management strategies to enable excessively anxious students to be better prepared to cope with their fears and strengthen their ability to achieve academic, social, and personal resilience and success.

Bystanders to bullying perpetration are considered an extremely important group to engage in bullying prevention and intervention. It is important to understand the key differences between students who are proactive bystanders, who try to stop the bullying and those bystanders who observe but take no action to help the student being bullied. Of 1,231 secondary students (aged 11 to 15 years) surveyed in 12 Australian schools, only 26.9% (509) reported they had not witnessed any bullying. The actions taken by student witnesses were grouped into proactive bystanding (786, 41.5%) and passive bystanding (445, 23.5%) responses. Age, gender, victimisation, being connected to school, perceived peer support and moral engagement were examined. The strongest predictor for proactive bystander responses was previous experience of bullying victimisation. Feeling connected to school, having higher levels of peer support and being morally engaged also predicted proactive bystander behaviour. Age and gender were not associated with being a proactive bystander or a passive bystander. Implications for school policy and practices to prevent and reduce peer bullying behaviour are discussed.

Arts subjects such as drama provide an effective context for developing 21st century skills, yet drama teaching in Sri Lanka is still mainly delivery through traditional, lecture-based methods. This article presents evaluation results of a drama-based intervention program that was designed specifically to develop junior secondary school students' creative thinking capacity and adaptability skills in the Sri Lankan context. The participants were 128 students aged 11-12 years in Year 7 drama classes. The program was implemented over twelve consecutive weeks in weekly two-hour sessions by regular drama teachers who had been trained in a process drama teaching approach. Results evidenced a positive effect emerging from the intervention: creativity and adaptability test scores of the students in the intervention group increased significantly compared to those of the students in the control and active control groups. This paper identifies implications of these findings for Sri Lankan drama teaching and learning and beyond.

Background: Cyberbullying is a significant problem for young people and secondary schools are the main institutions expected to address it. School anti-bullying measures have only modestly reduced the problem to date. Purpose: This study aimed to examine the perspectives of members within the school community regarding their actions to reduce cyberbullying. Method: School stakeholders were recruited from two large independent high schools in Australia. Overall, four school leaders, two key personnel with roles in cyberbullying prevention, and two parents participated in semi-structured interviews, while two groups of Year 9 teachers, and four groups of Year 9 students (aged 13–15 years) participated in focus groups. Interview and focus group protocols were developed to gather views about prevention and intervention measures for cyberbullying in the stakeholders’ schools. Copies of anti-cyberbullying policies and documents were also collected for review. Analysis: A thematic content analysis was conducted on 14 stakeholder transcripts from interviews and focus groups, and school policy documents were reviewed for anti-bullying components. The distal systems of a social-ecological framework were used to frame a wider view of school efforts to prevent and intervene in cyberbullying. Findings: The content analysis and review showed that school actions were reflective of evidence-based best practice. However, despite actions towards making students safe from cyberbullying, stakeholders were left questioning why these incidents were still observed. The analysis revealed that the continued presence of cyberbullying was not simply attributable to ineffective school practices, but rather from societal influences. Three macrosystem themes were identified from the data: the culture of technology; the legal framework; and the media portrayal of cyberbullying. These macrosystem influences could be seen impacting four school exosystems (i.e. communities of school practice): th

The teaching of drama in Sri Lanka is presently only conducted by the traditional lecture method, which is not conducive to preparing students for the modern globalised world. To ascertain whether teaching by process drama techniques improved creativity in secondary school students, a non-randomised control group design with an intervention group, a control group and an active control group, was conducted. This article describes the perceptions of teachers in the intervention group who taught process drama. We describe the obstacles which the teachers experienced when teaching process drama and the challenge to bring changes to drama education in Sri Lanka.

School bullying is a global phenomenon and parents play a key role in supporting young children and reducing bullying incidents. Parents’ understanding of bullying will influence the way they respond to the behaviour, so it is important to know what parents believe bullying to be. A total of 201 Australian parents of young children between the ages of 5 and 10 participated in an online survey to define bullying and fighting in their own words and identify the differences between the two behaviours. Parents were also presented with 20 scenarios that depicted five traditional bullying behaviours, five cyberbullying behaviours, five non-bullying face-to-face behaviours and five non-cyberbullying behaviours and asked to identify whether these behaviours were bullying or not bullying. The results showed that these parents described some of the attributes which researchers define as bullying such as, the intention to harm, a power difference and repetition but they were unable to define clearly the differences between bullying and fighting. The vast majority of parents recognised when the scenario was describing bullying behaviour however, some parents classified fighting and even playful behaviour as bullying in the scenarios that did not show bullying behaviours. Implications for supporting parents understanding of bullying are discussed.

The increasing tendency of immigration and forced migration practices around the world has made countries' populations culturally and linguistically diverse. Australia is considered one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world. Consequently, the proportion of school-aged children with different culture and language is also increasing. Thus, school psychologists and guidance counsellors face the challenge of designing fair assessment practices and sound interventions for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) students who experience difficulties with their learning. Although many multicultural countries have extensive research regarding the assessment of learning difficulties in CALD students, Australia lacks this research. This study explored the most common assessment strategies that school psychologists and guidance counsellors usually implement in their assessment of CALD students. These results were then compared to a best practice model from the literature. In order to understand the current practices of school psychologists and counsellors in Australia who have assessed CALD children, a survey was administered to 34 school psychologists and counsellors. It was found that the reported strategies and protocols were very close to the ones proposed by experts, which was an unexpected outcome of this study. Implications for school psychologists and counsellors are discussed.

Bullying has been a topic widely researched in schools and the workplace, however, comparatively there is a paucity of research into bullying among university students. This is an oversight, as bullying may also have negative consequences for university students, ranging from anxiety to suicidal ideation. Anti-bullying policies are an important part of bullying prevention and intervention, however, due to Australian Federal legislation, policies for students are not mandatory at universities. To be an effective prevention and intervention strategy, anti-bullying policies and procedures should be informative, supportive, well publicised, and student user friendly. Through analysing the anti-bullying policies and procedures from 39 Australian universities, using a 37-item analysis tool adapted from Purdy and Smith as well as thematic analysis, this study aims to determine if Australian universities are providing students with the information and support they need to be able to report bullying to their university and study in a safe environment. Both strengths and weaknesses were found in 37 individual universities’ student anti-bullying policies and procedures, as well as overall trends displayed by universities Australia-wide. The overall paucity of information and consistency, as well as the poor user-friendliness of many of the documents, highlights the need for changes to be made. Without the reform of student anti-bullying policies and procedures in Australian universities, students will be unsupported and ill-equipped to identify and report bullying. Universities will also run the risk of gaining a bad reputation and not promoting a bully-free culture for students in which to learn and socialise.

Researchers need to be cautious and reflective about the boundaries between narrative research and narrative intervention. Pursuing the ethics of care and the responsive and responsible practice of narrative inquiry obliges qualitative researchers to remain sensitive about the implications of engaging participants in narrative inquiry. This is accentuated with narrative inquiry into the life experiences of marginalised or disempowered populations. This study explored the implications of engaging recently resettled young African participants in narrative inquiry interviews. Thematic analysis uncovered four themes and 11 subthemes from the interviews. The Future Career Autobiography (FCA; Rehfuss, 2009, 2015) was used to understand these participants’ narrative themes and explore the possibility of narrative change as a result of participating in narrative inquiry interviews. The findings illustrate the transformative function of narrative inquiry as uncovered by the FCA, and how narrative inquiry could potentially cross a boundary with narrative interventions such as narrative career counselling.

Bullying is a perplexing and persistent problem with negative consequences for all involved. Schools are assigned considerable responsibility for the management of bullying because of its prevalence amongst youth. Despite considerable efforts over decades to curtail bullying through the use of anti-bullying policies and other school-based interventions, the rates of young people who frequently bully has not decreased significantly. Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a relational and affirming conversational method that strengthens an individual's motivation and commitment to change, overcoming ambivalence toward the problem. The aim of the current study was to provide preliminary insight into the feasibility of incorporating MI into student service repertoires for addressing bullying. Ten staff participants from six secondary schools, who had roles in bullying intervention within their respective schools, were offered training in MI and invited to use and monitor this method in their practice as an intervention for students who perpetrate bullying. Results indicated a number factors which influenced the uptake of MI in schools. Facilitators enabling the use of MI included practitioner's professional background, administrative support, training and implementation of MI. Barriers to the use of MI included time pressure and administrative expectations, school roles and system limitations, and preconceptions and the stigma of bullying.

Children who grow up with loving and attentive parents grow up more resilient. But at what point does love and attention go too far?

Introduction Research studies [https://www.beyondblue.org.au/media/statistics] indicate that half of all lifelong mental health problems begin before the age of 14 years of age, with 75% of issues beginning before the age of 25. In 2015 report: • 13.9% of school-aged children met the criteria for a diagnosis of a mental disorder; • 6.9% of children and young people suffered from an anxiety disorder; • 19.9% of all young people had high or very high levels of psychological distress; and • suicide rates among young people are at the highest they’ve been for over a decade, with suicide responsible for one-third of all deaths of young people aged 14-25 years. According to Beyond Blue [https://www.beyondblue.org.au/about-us/about-our-work/youthbeyondblue] adolescence is a particularly critical time for mental health with around 550,000 young people leaving school and entering into early adulthood experiencing depression and/or anxiety.

This chapter presents what we currently know about prevention and intervention strategies for cyberbullying. It starts with the controversial topic of what behaviours actually constitute cyberbullying. The three positions to date are that cyberbullying is a fourth form of bullying, or that cyberbullying is different from traditional bullying because of the medium, or that cyberbullying cannot be disaggregated from cyber aggression. The history, prevalence, and consequences of cyberbullying are then presented as they relate to the programmes which attempt to reduce its incidence. Five different programme types to address cyberbullying are then presented with the evidence of their effectiveness to date. The common elements of these programmes, the issues with the programmes themselves and their implementation are discussed. Finally, some other strategies to reduce cyberbullying and what needs to be done in the future are presented.

The Australian Universities Anti-bullying Research Alliance (AUARA) is an internationally recognised group of educators, psychologists, academics, lawyers and researchers in the fields of aggression, bullying and school violence, and the mental health and wellbeing of young people. AUARA is a collaboration which aims to improve the outcomes of young people in Australia by leading, contributing to, and drawing from the national and international research evidence-base. AUARA’s mission is to reduce the negative impacts of bullying involvement on young people.

Peer bullying in schools is a significant public health problem that contributes to poor health and wellbeing outcomes for those who bully or are bullied. Meta-analyses of the efficacy of secondary school bullying prevention interventions have typically found no effects or an increase in student bullying. Consequently, few secondary school studies have examined the “real-world” effectiveness of these interventions. This age-cohort study design evaluated the effectiveness of the Friendly Schools (FS) secondary school intervention, previously found to be efficacious. FS was implemented in schools under real-world conditions by an education publisher. Student survey data were collected in 12 schools. The primary outcomes were bullying victimisation and perpetration. Results showed a significant decrease in reported bullying perpetration in subsequent cohorts of both grade 8 and 9 students, and a significant reduction in bullying victimisation and cybervictimisation for grade 8 students, when the FS student curriculum was taught compared to the usual curriculum. This study demonstrates the importance of considering the effectiveness of secondary school bullying prevention interventions and real-world implementation supports for schools.

Adolescents experiencing excessive anxiety are often under-identified in the school context, and consequently under-referred for in-school counselling or other mental health support. This is despite anxiety being the most prevalent mental health condition currently experienced by adolescents. The purpose of this study was to explore secondary teachers’ ability to recognise the need to refer adolescents with excessive anxiety symptoms. One hundred and fourteen secondary school teachers completed a questionnaire with five vignettes describing students experiencing various degrees of anxiety. Statistical analysis of the data involved use of the one-sample Wilcoxon test and Spearman's Rank Non-Parametric Correlation Coefficients. Results indicated that teachers recognised the need to refer adolescents with very severe anxiety symptoms. However, they were less likely to correctly identify and refer students with severe, moderate or mild anxiety symptoms. There was no statistically significant difference between male and female teachers’ decision to refer students for school counselling. These findings are an important step forward in understanding how teachers decide whether or not to refer anxious children for support, and in identifying areas for further training and professional development. Implications are discussed for future professional development for secondary school teachers.

Objectives: Bullied students are at increased risk of internalizing problems. Many school bullying-prevention programs encourage targets of bullying to seek help from an adult at school. However, few students report victimization to school staff, and reports do not always result in positive outcomes for the victimized student. This study aimed to understand factors associated with students telling an adult at school about experienced victimization, and victimization and internalizing problems a year after taking this action. Methods: Students in Grade 7–9 (mean age 13 years) in 12 schools completed online surveys in 2015 (T1). Data from the victimized students (n = 316) were analyzed to determine factors associated with speaking with school staff about their experience. The Grade 7–8 students were surveyed again in 2016 (T2) and matched data on 101 students victimized at T1 used to compare the longer-term internalizing problems and victimization outcomes for students who spoke with staff. Results: Victimization status and level of internalizing problems at T2 of students bullied at T1 were associated with telling an adult at T1, and these associations were moderated by severity of T1 victimization. For students more severely victimized at T1, speaking with a staff member was associated with increased odds of continued victimization at T2, but fewer internalizing problems when compared to those who did not tell. Conclusions: To prevent persistent victimization, schools and teachers need to be better equipped to respond effectively when a student first becomes a target of bullying, and discourage ongoing perpetrator behavior.

Background: The significant psychosocial harms from bullying among adolescents create major challenges for mental health promotion programs and services in schools. While the negative consequences of bullying victimisation are well known, to date there is scarce empirical analysis of inverse associations, in which mental health problems make children more vulnerable to bullying victimisation and perpetration. Based on a short-term longitudinal study among adolescents in Vietnam, this study examined reciprocal associations between children's depressive symptoms, psychological distress, suicidal ideation and bullying victimisation experiences (i.e., victims or bully-victims). Methods: Secondary and high school students (n = 1167; age range: 11-16 years old; 55% female) in urban areas in northern Vietnam completed two self-administered questionnaires, 6-months apart in the academic year 2014-2015. Measures estimated bullying victimisation and perpetration in the past 6 months, depressive symptoms, psychological distress, and suicidal ideation. A cross-lagged analysis was performed to test the reciprocal associations. Results: About one-third of students in the sample were involved as victims, bullies or bully-victims at both times, with more males than females reporting these experiences. Females reported a higher level of depressive symptoms than males at Time 1 but not at Time 2. After adjusting for outcome variables and other covariates measured at Time 1, nine of 12 cross-lagged associations across three models were statistically significant, with different patterns for females and males. There were reciprocal associations between bullying victimisation and mental health problems. Bullying victimisation was shown as an independent predictor of subsequent mental health problems; in turn, mental health problems preceded students' experience of becoming victims or bully-victims. Females with mental health problems were more likely to be victims; whereas similarly d

Beyond the basic information provided in foundation texts and test manuals, there is a notable scarcity of professional literature addressing complex issues and dilemmas in assessment. At times, psychologists need to make decisions based on their professional experience or personal preferences, and it is possible that some of these decisions are made without adequate justification or reflection. Intern psychologists may be confused by the differing advice they are given by university staff, supervisors and experienced practitioners. Our aim in this project was to identify specific issues in psychoeducational assessment that need clarity, guidance and reflection, not only during postgraduate training, but also across the professional lifespan. Focus groups with educational and developmental psychology interns revealed confusion about aspects of test administration and interpretation, as well as a number of challenging professional issues. The findings have implications for trainers and supervisors, as well as for experienced practitioners.

Previous research has focused on the prevalence of bullying of students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), with little attention given to its emotional effect. This mixed methods study examined levels of worry about bullying and bullying experiences reported by students and parents. To determine whether some students with ASD are differentially affected, we explored associations between students’ characteristics (understanding of bullying, age and co-morbid conditions) and their bullying experiences and worries. Surveys exploring bullying experiences and levels of worry about bullying were completed by 89 students with ASD without intellectual disability aged 11–16 years and their parents. We also qualitatively explored parents’ perceptions of how bullying affects their children, through semi-structured interviews of nine parents. Students with comorbid anxiety disorders were more likely to report face-to-face victimization and were more troubled by both face-to-face bullying and cyberbullying, while students with depression were more likely to report cyber victimization. Parental concerns included the impact of victimization on school attendance, self-esteem, mental health, social participation, academic performance, and behaviour. The significantly higher levels of worry about bullying and higher victimization rates reported by students with internalizing symptoms suggest that these students may be disproportionately at risk of psychological harm.

Peer bullying in schools is a significant public health problem that contributes to poor health and wellbeing outcomes for those who bully or are bullied. Meta-analyses of the efficacy of secondary school bullying prevention interventions have typically found no effects or an increase in student bullying. Consequently, few secondary school studies have examined the “real-world” effectiveness of these interventions. This age-cohort study design evaluated the effectiveness of the Friendly Schools (FS) secondary school intervention, previously found to be efficacious. FS was implemented in schools under real-world conditions by an education publisher. Student survey data were collected in 12 schools. The primary outcomes were bullying victimisation and perpetration. Results showed a significant decrease in reported bullying perpetration in subsequent cohorts of both grade 8 and 9 students, and a significant reduction in bullying victimisation and cybervictimisation for grade 8 students, when the FS student curriculum was taught compared to the usual curriculum. This study demonstrates the importance of considering the effectiveness of secondary school bullying prevention interventions and real-world implementation supports for schools.

Bullying has serious consequences for students, parents, teachers and the wider community. This study assessed teachers’ and parents’ ability to accurately identify traditional bullying and cyberbullying scenarios. Perceived seriousness of scenarios was explored and gender differences were examined. Analyses revealed teachers were more accurate in identifying traditional bullying scenarios than parents, with no differences found for cyberbullying scenarios or perceptions of severity. Males were more accurate in identifying non-cyberbullying scenarios. Females perceived the majority of traditional and cyberbullying scenarios as more serious. Results suggest understanding teachers’ and parents’ knowledge of traditional and cyberbullying is crucial to bullying research and intervention efforts, as their recognition of bullying and perceived severity impacts the likelihood they would intervene. Implications for the prevention and intervention of bullying are discussed.