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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Little is known about the prevalence of cyberbullying among university students and less about whether they utilise anti-bullying policies. However, failure to report cyberbullying incidents to authorities would lessen the efficacy of these policies. This study investigated the prevalence of cyberbullying among university students and their reporting intentions for cyberbullying incidents. Two hundred and eighty-two students completed a survey on their intentions to report cyberbullying. Results found cyberbullying exists among university students and they would report to authorities if the policy outlined specific information. Students who had been cyber victimised were more likely to report than those students who had not been cyberbullied. Implications for universities 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.

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): the parent community, the organisational community, the support and advice community, and commercial communities of schools. Conclusion: The macrosystems and exosystems of schools are influencing school actions, with implications for the reduction of student cyberbullying.

This study examined primary school teachers' knowledge of anxiety and excessive anxiety symptoms in children. Three hundred and fifteen primary school teachers completed a questionnaire exploring their definitions of anxiety and the indications they associated with excessive anxiety in primary school children. Results showed that teachers had an understanding of what anxiety was in general but did not consistently distinguish normal anxiety from excessive anxiety, often defining all anxiety as a negative experience. Teachers were able to identify symptoms of excessive anxiety in children by recognizing anxiety-specific and general problem indications. The results provided preliminary evidence that teachers' knowledge of anxiety and anxiety disorders does not appear to be a barrier in preventing children's referrals for mental health treatment. Implications for practice and directions for future research are discussed. (Contains 2 tables.)

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether an approach to developing word lists centred on etymological roots would improve the spelling performance of older primary school students. Participants were 46 students in the last year of primary school in south-east Queensland (31 girls and 15 boys) across three classes, with two classes being assigned to control conditions. Students were evaluated pre- and post-intervention on three dependent measures: British Spelling Test Series spelling, spelling in writing and writing. The results of this intervention revealed improvements in spelling for girls but not for boys. The implications for improved teaching methods are discussed. (Contains 2 figures.)

This study investigated the ability of primary school teachers to recognise and refer children with anxiety symptoms. Two hundred and ninety-nine primary school teachers completed a questionnaire exploring their recognition and referral responses to five hypothetical vignettes that described boys and girls with varying severity of anxiety symptoms. Results revealed that teachers were generally able to recognise and make the decision to refer children with severe levels of anxiety. However, they had difficulty distinguishing between children with moderate anxiety symptoms and a severe anxiety disorder. Female teachers were more likely to refer children than were male teachers. The implications and future research are discussed. (Contains 1 table and 2 figures.)

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 noncyberbullying 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.

Today's young people have integrated the online world into their everyday reality and schools have generally accepted the importance of technology in the education process. However, there has been limited use in schools of technology to counsel young people, although early indications suggest that school counsellors may be prepared to offer synchronous online counselling if they were supported by school principals. The aim of this study was to investigate Australian secondary school principals' views about using an online format for counselling in schools. There were 33 principals who participated and they indicated technological competency and acknowledged the benefits of using technology in the counselling process. The principals were generally supportive of the provision of online school counselling, although their major concern was the need for more counsellors and the impact on the workload of current counselling staff. A few principals, however, were unconvinced about offering online counselling and had a fundamental preference for face-to-face communication experiences for students. Strategies for facilitating the acceptance of online counselling by principals and guiding implementation in schools are proposed.

Students with ASC are at heightened risk for bullying and their understanding of bullying is known to protect them from involvement in it (Humphrey and Hebron 2015). However, only a handful of studies have examined how students with ASC understand traditional bullying and none of them focused on cyberbullying. To fill this gap, we investigated how traditional bullying and cyberbullying are understood from the perspectives of 89 students with ASC attending inclusive schools and 490 students without ASC. Twenty vignettes were used from (Campbell et al. 2017a), based on the Olweus (1999) definition of bullying and verified by a Delphi technique. In the majority of traditional bullying and cyberbullying vignettes, students with ASC made more accurate responses than inaccurate ones and demonstrated higher accuracy rates than students without ASC. Findings of linear multiple regression analyses pointed out ASC status as a predictive variable for understanding both types of bullying, along with students' age for understanding cyberbullying. The findings highlight the ability rather than inability to understand bullying in students with ASC. It is therefore critical to include the voices and experiences of students with ASC in our research endeavour.

Accumulating evidence suggests that the prevalence of bullying is significantly higher for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) than for typically developing students. Additionally, the prominence and growth of social networking and resultant focus on cyberbullying in the last 10 years has added a new dimension to the traditional definitions, environments and experiences of bullying. This paper describes current anti-bullying strategies and the legal climate in regard to bullying in Australia. It then reports on interviews with 10 students with ASD and their parents, and discusses recommendations based on their perceptions for dealing with bullying in schools. Data analysis indicated that both students and parents made a range of recommendations to increase awareness of bullying; improve policies and procedures that can be more clearly communicated to students, teachers and parents; and support programmes that develop communication and relationship building within families and in schools to both prevent bullying and provide coping strategies to deal with bullying if it occurs. Parents also called for schools to give harsher penalties for offenders, particularly repeat offenders. These student and parent recommendations may contribute to the development of school and government policy and practice to help reduce the incidence of all forms of bullying in schools.

Students with developmental disabilities have many challenges with learning and adaptive behaviour, as well as a higher prevalence rate of mental health problems. Although there is a substantial body of evidence for effcacious interventions for enhancing resilience and promoting mental health in typically developing children, very few programs have been modifed for use with students with developmental disabilities. In this article we present two interventions (Aussie Optimism and the Resourceful Adolescent Program) that have been rigorously tested with typically developing students and subsequently adapted and evaluated for their effectiveness for students with developmental disabilities. The article highlights the critical importance of using interventions with a robust evidence base, and the important role for school psychologists and counsellors in program selection, implementation, and evaluation.

Online relationship formation through social networking sites helps to meet the developmental need for intimacy in emerging adults. Through the use of the "rich get richer" and the "social compensation" hypotheses, it is evident that personality characteristics such as extraversion and introversion impact online relationship formation. However, there is a lack of research on the amount of relational benefits, in terms of social capital, accrued from these relationships. This study addressed this issue by examining how the online communication styles of extraverts and introverts mediate the relationship between the personality variables and the accumulation of online social capital. Support for the rich get richer hypothesis was found, with extraversion leading to the accumulation of bonding social capital. This relationship was mediated by the active communication behaviors of extraverts.

The current study explored the reasons that primary school teachers reported were tipping points for them in deciding whether or not and when to refer a child to the school student support team for excessive anxiety. Twenty teachers in two Queensland primary schools were interviewed. Content analysis of interview transcripts revealed six themes reflecting teachers' perceived reasons for deciding to refer anxious children: (1) impact on learning; (2) atypical child behaviour; (3) repeated difficulties that do not improve over time; (4) poor response to strategies; (5) teachers' need for support; and (6) information from parents/carers. Teachers considered different combinations of reasons and had many different tipping points for making a referral. Both teacher- and system-level influences impacted referral decisions. Implications and future research are discussed.

This study examined the opinions of influential, authoritative employees from the education and legal systems, regarding their perceptions of the role of the law and cyberbullying in Australian schools. Participants were asked whether they thought a specific law for cyberbullying should be introduced, what particular behaviours, if any, should be criminalised and who should be involved. Participants were located across three Australian States. Thematic analysis was used to identify eight main themes within the data, namely (1) uses of the law in general, (2) introduction of a law for cyberbullying, (3) benefits and difficulties of criminalising cyberbullying for young people, (4) conditions for a cyberbullying law for young people, (5) who should be involved in a cyberbullying law, (6) legal sanctions thought to be appropriate, (7) educational and legal solutions and (8) educational interventions for student cyberbullying. Implications include increasing the awareness of how existing legislative responses can be used as deterrents, working towards more effective cooperation of education and legal systems.

Background: Despite decades of research, bullying in all its forms is still a significant problem within schools in Australia, as it is internationally. Anti-bullying policies and guidelines are thought to be one strategy as part of a whole school approach to reduce bullying. However, although Australian schools are required to have these policies, their effectiveness is not clear. As policies and guidelines about bullying and cyberbullying are developed within education departments, this paper explores the perspectives of those who are involved in their construction. Purpose: This study examined the perspectives of professionals involved in policy construction, across three different Australian states. The aim was to determine how their relative jurisdictions define bullying and cyberbullying, the processes for developing policy, the bullying prevention and intervention recommendations given to schools and the content considered essential in current policies. Sample: Eleven key stakeholders from three Australian states with similar education systems were invited to participate. The sample selection criteria included professionals with experience and training in education, cyber-safety and the responsibility to contribute to or make decisions which inform policy in this area for schools in their state. Design and methods: Participants were interviewed about the definitions of bullying they used in their state policy frameworks; the extent to which cyberbullying was included; and the content they considered essential for schools to include in anti-bullying policies. Data were collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews and analysed thematically. Findings: Seven themes were identified in the data: (1) Definition of bullying and cyberbullying; (2) Existence of a policy template; (3) Policy location; (4) Adding cyberbullying; (5) Distinguishing between bullying and cyberbullying; (6) Effective policy; and (7) Policy as a prevention or intervention tool. The results were similar both across state boundaries and also across different disciplines. Conclusion: Analysis of the data suggested that, across the themes, there was some lack of information about bullying and cyberbullying. This limitation could affect the subsequent development, dissemination and sustainability of school anti-bullying policies, which have implications for the translation of research to inform better student outcomes.

This article investigates the perceptions of 156 students who were victims of both traditional and cyberbullying (117 female, 45 male), ages 10 to 17 years, as to which form of bullying was more hurtful. Overall, students perceived traditional victimization to be more hurtful than cyber victimization. Reasons identified in the data to explain the different perceptions of victims were categorized and found to relate to: the bully, the bystanders, the bullying incidents, the emotional impact on the victim, and the victim's ability to respond. The perceptions of these students challenge a number of suppositions presented in the literature that attempt to explain why cyberbullying is associated with more negative outcomes than traditional bullying. The implications for antibullying programs to address these issues are discussed.

Given their ubiquitous presence as witnesses to school-yard bullying, the role of the "bystander" has been studied extensively. The prevalence and behaviour of bystanders to "cyberbullying," however, is less understood. In an anonymous, school-based questionnaire, 716 secondary school students from South-East Queensland reported whether they had witnessed traditional and/or cyberbullying, and how they responded to each type. Overlap in bystander roles between online and offline environments was examined, as was their relationship to age and gender. Students who witnessed traditional bullying were more likely to have witnessed cyberbullying. Bystanders' behaviour was sometimes similar in both contexts of traditional and cyberbullying, mainly if they were outsiders but half of the 256 students who reported witnessing both traditional and cyberbullying, acted in different roles across the two environments. The implications of the findings are discussed in the context of previous research on cyberbullying and traditional-bystanders. Future research should further explore the role of bystanders online, including examining whether known predictors of traditional-bystander behaviour similarly predict cyber-bystander behaviour.

Acting in the best interests of students is central to the moral and ethical work of schools. Yet tensions can arise between principals and school counsellors as they work from at times opposing professional paradigms. In this article we report on principals' and counsellors' responses to scenarios covering confidentiality and the law, student/teacher relationships, student welfare and psychological testing of students. This discussion takes place against an examination of ethics, ethical dilemmas and professional codes of ethics. While there were a number of commonalities among principals and school counsellors that arose from their common belief in education as a moral venture, there were also some key differences among them. These differences centred on the principals' focus on the school as a whole and counsellors' focus on the welfare of the individual student. A series of recommendations is offered to assist principals to navigate ethical dilemmas such as those considered in this article.

While it is recognized that there are serious sequelae for students who are victims of cyberbullying including depression, anxiety, lower self-esteem and social difficulties, there has been little research attention paid to the mental health of students who cyberbully. It is known that students who traditionally bully report they feel indifferent to their victims, showing a lack of empathy and that they themselves are at increased risk for psychosocial adjustment. However, there is scant research on the mental health associations for students who cyberbully or their awareness of their impact on others. The current study sought to ascertain from Australian students who reported cyberbullying others in school years 6 to 12 (10-19 years of age), their perceptions of their mental health and the harm they caused to and the impact their actions had, on their victims. Most students who cyberbullied did not think that their bullying was harsh or that they had an impact on their victims. They reported more social difficulties and higher scores on stress, depression and anxiety scales than those students who were not involved in any bullying. The implications of these findings for the mental health of the cyberbullies and for psychologists in schools who assist them, are discussed.

It is well recognised that there are serious correlates for victims of traditional bullying. These have been shown to include increased levels of depression, anxiety and psychosomatic symptoms, in addition to often severe physical harm and even suicide. Bullied students also feel more socially ineffective and have greater interpersonal difficulties, together with higher absenteeism from school and lower academic competence. In the emerging field of cyberbullying many researchers have hypothesised a greater impact and more severe consequences for victims because of the 24/7 nature and the possibility of the wider audience with this form of bullying. However, to date there is scarce empirical evidence to support this. This study sought to compare victims' perceptions of the harshness and impact of bullying by traditional and cyber means. The major findings showed that although students who had been victimised by traditional bullying reported that they felt their bullying was harsher and crueller and had more impact on their lives than those students who had been cyberbullied, the correlates of their mental health revealed that cybervictims reported significantly more social difficulties, and higher levels of anxiety and depression than traditional victims. The implications for school counsellors and mental health workers are discussed. (Contains 3 tables.)

Introduction: This cross-cultural study compared both the symptoms of anxiety and their severity in a community sample of children from Colombia and Australia. Method: The sample comprised 516 children (253 Australian children and 263 Colombian children), aged 8 to 12-years-old. The Spence Children's Anxiety Scale (SCAS) was used to measure both the symptoms and levels of anxiety. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to compare the samples. Results: The results showed a significant difference in the severity of the symptoms between the children in the two countries. In general, Colombian children reported more severe symptoms than their Australian peers, however there were no difference in the types of symptoms reported by the children in the two countries. Discussion and Conclusion: The implications of these findings and their importance to cross-cultural research are discussed. (Contains 6 tables and 1 figure.)

Increasing numbers of Asian international students are choosing to undertake their tertiary studies in English-speaking countries. For universities, international students are an important source of revenue. However, Asian international students face multiple challenges in adapting to a foreign culture, understanding the expectations of their role, and adjusting to language, communication and cultural differences. These challenges are manifested, in particular, during practicum or field experience. This paper investigated the concerns of twenty Asian pre-service teachers before and after their practicum in Australian schools by drawing upon data from focus group interviews. Although language barriers and cultural differences were identified concerns before the practicum, concerns about their relationship with their supervising teachers and the limited time in which they had to learn also emerged after the practicum. Whilst the findings are limited to the present study, implications for supporting Asian international pre-service teachers during practicum are discussed. (Contains 1 note.)

Excessive anxiety and worry can prevent young people from participating fully in school and life opportunities. Anxiety can involve fear of being apart from significant people or being left alone; avoidance of certain situations or activities for fear of embarrassment; worrying about normal life issues; repetitive thoughts and behaviours used as protection against something bad happening; or panic attacks and fears of recurring attacks and their effects. It has been shown that unusual behaviours such as obsessional activities, the need for reassurance, low self-esteem, poor concentration, fatigue, headaches, stomach aches and other reactions from excessive anxiety can hinder a child's academic success at school and affect their social relationships. Furthermore, anxiety is linked to depression that, in some cases, leads to suicide. This is significant for Indigenous youth as suicide rates in this group are significantly higher than the Australian national average. Not only are there difficulties in the ethical and practical aspects of conducting research with Indigenous youth, there are also difficulties in assessing mental health and anxiety, in particular, with this group. Nevertheless, it is important to gain a sense of Indigenous understanding about what is constructed as mental health, "wellness" and excessive anxiety and how we come to a shared understanding of these concepts so that meaningful research into areas such as anxiety can be conducted.

There has been limited longitudinal investigation to date into the association between bullying, self-harm, and suicidality in Australia and the impact of specific demographic differences on this relationship. This is despite the continued rise in the incidence of bullying, self-harm, and suicide. As such, the current study draws on data from the Longitudinal Survey of Australian children (LSAC) to examine the association between bullying, self-harm, and suicidality and explore the impact of demographic differences across three bullying related behaviors (being bullied, bullying others and being both bullied and bullying others). The evidence indicates that bully-victims exhibit the highest risk of self-harm and suicidality in Australia. When considering demographic differences, it was identified that females and adolescents aged 16-17-years-of-age had the highest risk of self-harm and suicidality. Further, a direct curvilinear relationship between age and the categories of self-harm was identified with an inflection point around 16–17 years. The study supports the need for further investigation into the association between bullying, self-harm, and suicidality longitudinally with a particular focus on other moderators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the associations of gender, age, trait anger, moral disengagement, witnessing of interparental conflict, school connectedness and the religious makeup of the school setting in the involvement in traditional bullying and cyberbullying perpetration. Five hundred Australian students completed an anonymous self-report, paper-based questionnaire. According to the results, 25.2% of the participants reported having engaged in traditional or cyberbullying perpetration. While trait anger and moral disengagement were associated with being a traditional bully, trait anger, interparental conflicts, moral disengagement and school connectedness were associated with being a traditional bully-victim. Additionally, trait anger and moral disengagement were associated with being a traditional-and-cyberbully. Our findings indicated that besides individual variables, the family and school environment have an impact on traditional and cyberbullying perpetration behavior. Results imply that any prevention attempts to reduce traditional and cyberbullying should consider students' experiences both at home and at school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School counseling in Australia is presently in a state of flux and adaptation. Within this period of change and adjustment, three key points are acknowledged. First, structural and organizational change is a constant in the field of school counseling in the Australian context. Second, despite this, the nature of the school counseling role tends to remain the same but with new areas of need added, such as self-harm and cyberbullying. Third, each state and territory in Australia has differing role statements and training requirements for its school counselors. This paper initially reviews the historical context of school counseling in Australia, including changes and developments in qualifications and training programs. A description of the current status of school counseling, including the differences among the state systems, is then provided. Issues such as work intensification, uncertainty of tenure, supervision, ethical issues, and online counseling are discussed. The scant research into the effectiveness of the profession is outlined, followed by future recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The similarities and differences between life coaching and counselling are vigorously debated in the literature and amongst practitioners. However, to date there has been insufficient empirical evidence with extensive focus on the distinctions and significantly less acknowledgement of the similarities. This paper presents findings from in-depth interviews in Australia of five internationally trained life coaches and nine of their clients in various countries. It reviews the distinctions between coaching and counselling presented in the literature and provides qualitative evidence to support, clarify and challenge current claims that the distinction is principally definitional. In so doing, it demonstrates substantive similarities between coaching and counselling and recommends collaboration rather than competition between the two disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the subject of cyberbullying of children and adolescents has begun to be addressed, less attention and research have focused on cyberbullying in the workplace. Male-dominated workplaces such as manufacturing settings are found to have an increased risk of workplace bullying, but the prevalence of cyberbullying in this sector is not known. This exploratory study investigated the prevalence and methods of face-to-face bullying and cyberbullying of males at work. One hundred three surveys (a modified version of the revised Negative Acts Questionnaire [NAQ-R]) were returned from randomly selected members of the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union (AMWU). The results showed that 34% of respondents were bullied face-to-face, and 10.7% were cyberbullied. All victims of cyberbullying also experienced face-to-face bullying. The implications for organizations' "duty of care" in regard to this new form of bullying are indicated.