While there is increasing recognition of the need to go beyond measures of mental ill health, there is a relative dearth of validated tools for assessing mental well-being among adolescents. The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS) is a promising tool for use in this context, and this study evaluated its use in an Australian context.…

Acquiescence response bias is the tendency to agree to questionnaires irrespective of item content or direction, and is problematic for both researchers and clinicians. Further research is warranted to clarify factors relating to the confounding influence of acquiescence. Building on previous research that investigated the interaction between…

Coping skills provide a resource for tackling stress in everyday situations, including those relating to parenting. The aim of this article is to establish whether parents who experienced a 10-hour universal social emotional parenting program--Families Coping (FC)--benefit through increased productive coping strategies, decreased nonproductive…

Mastery motivation is an important developmental construct that has implications for development across the lifespan. Research to date has focused predominantly on infants and children, with the Dimensions of Mastery Questionnaire (DMQ) being the most widely used measure of mastery motivation. This article reports on the development and initial…

As growing numbers of transgender people--including students, parents, and educators--become visible within schools, so comes with this the requirement that schools ensure their full inclusion. This article suggests that school counsellors and psychologists have an important role to play in supporting transgender people within schools. As an…

This qualitative study describes the effect of two gratitude interventions designed to trigger emotion-gratitude (gratitude diary) and action-gratitude (gratitude letter) in school leaders. Case study methodology was applied to analyse reflective journals of 27 school leaders. The gratitude diary served to foster a more balanced view of the…

Many students treated for cancer experience significant challenges in maintaining their education during and beyond cancer treatment. Late effects of cancer treatment combined with prolonged periods of missed schooling can dramatically impact upon a student's physical, cognitive and social development. This study examined the relationship between…

The Actiotope Model of Giftedness (AMG) focuses on person-environment interactions instead of on the personality traits associated with actions. Motivation is a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic forces that are fundamental to the production of actions. Therefore, the resources provided by the environment or person are important for the…

The quality of the sibling relationship has an important role in the development of psychosocial skills throughout childhood. While the literature suggests that the significance of sibling relationships is heightened when one sibling has a disability, empirical findings about the quality of these relationships are few and inconsistent. The present…

Existing Australian measures of racist attitudes focus on single groups or have not been validated across the lifespan. To redress this, the present research aimed to develop and validate a measure of racial, ethnic, cultural and religious acceptance--the Australian Racism, Acceptance, and Cultural-Ethnocentrism Scale (RACES)--for use with…

The motor and language skills, emotional and behavioural problems of 245 children were measured at school entry. Fine motor scores were significantly predicted by hyperactivity, phonetic awareness, prosocial behaviour, and the presence of medical problems. Gross motor scores were significantly predicted by the presence of medical problems. The…

Setting clear achievable goals that enhance reputational status has been shown to direct the energies of adolescents into socially conforming or non-conforming activities. It appears to be the case that following transition from Intensive English Centres (IECs) into mainstream schooling, students from African refugee backgrounds experience…

Dynamic systems theory (DST) is presented in this article as a suitable approach to research the acquisition of second language (L2) because of its close alignment with the process of second language learning. Through a process of identifying and comparing the characteristics of a dynamic system with the process of L2 learning, this article…

As social media use is rising among adolescents, the issue of whether this use leads to positive or negative outcomes warrants greater understanding. This article critically reviews the literature related to this important topic. Specifically, we examine how social media use affects social connectedness in terms of three elements of adolescent…

This meta-analysis aims to inform clinical practice of treatment strategies for adolescents with major depressive disorder (MDD). The efficacy of three empirically validated treatments was compared to determine the most effective treatment. These were: cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT), selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI)…