Bullying in all its forms, including cyberbullying, is a continuing problem in schools. Given the severe consequences it can have on students (socially, psychologically and physically) it is not surprising that a number of intervention programs have been developed, with most advocating a whole-school approach. The current study compared students' self-reports on bullying between schools with and without a Philosophy for Children (P4C) approach. A sample of 35 students in the P4C school and a matched sample of 35 students in other schools between the ages of 10 and 13 completed the Student Bullying Survey. Results indicated that while there were significant differences in incidences of face-to-face bullying, there were similar results from both cohorts in relation to cyberbullying. Both groups of students felt that teachers were more likely to prevent face-to-face bullying than cyberbullying. Findings indicate that teachers and guidance counsellors need to be as overt in teaching strategies about cyberbullying as they are in teaching strategies about reducing face-to-face bullying.

Students making the transition from high school to university often encounter many stressors and new experiences. Many students adjust successfully to university; however, some students do not, often resulting in attrition from the university and mental health issues. The primary aim of the current study was to examine the effects that optimism, self-efficacy, depression, and anxiety have on an individual's life stress and adaptation to university. Eighty-four first-year, full-time students from the Queensland University of Technology (60 female, 24 male) who had entered university straight from high school completed the study. Participants completed a questionnaire assessing their levels of optimism, self-efficacy, depression, anxiety, perceived level of life stress and adaptation to university. In line with predictions, results showed that optimism, depression, and anxiety each had a significant relationship with students’ perceived level of stress. Furthermore, self-efficacy and depression had a significant relationship with adaptation to university. We conclude that students with high levels of optimism and low levels of depression and anxiety will adapt better when making the transition from high school to university. In addition, students with high levels of self-efficacy and low levels of depression will experience less life stress in their commencement year of university. The implications of this study are outlined.

The outcomes of a new universal program aimed at preventing depressive symptoms and disorders in 8- to 9-year-old children are presented. The Positive Thinking Program is a mental health promotion program based on cognitive and behavioural strategies. It is designed to meet the developmental needs of children in the middle primary school Years 4 and 5. Four state primary schools were randomly assigned to receive the program implemented by psychologists or to a control condition involving their regular Health Education curriculum. Seventy-two children participated in the intervention condition and 48 children in the control condition. Children completed measures of depressive and anxiety symptomatology, depressive disorders, and attribution style. The intervention was associated with reductions in depressive symptoms and more positive attributions at post-intervention. Compared to the control group, there was a lower prevalence of depressive disorders at posttest and fewer intervention group children developed a depressive disorder at a 9-month follow-up.

There is growing evidence that children are vulnerable to poor psychological outcomes following exposure to a range of potentially traumatic events. Teachers are in a unique and well-placed position to provide vital support to children following potentially traumatic events and to also provide a vital role in helping to identify children who may be experiencing ongoing psychosocial difficulties. We present a review of mental health trauma resources available for use in educational settings within Australia and New Zealand, with a primary focus on post-disaster resources. We describe the design, development, and dissemination of our resources and training package, Childhood Trauma Reactions: A Guide for Educators from Preschool to Year 12, and present data on how these resources were received. Trauma-informed practices within the school and classroom will enable better outcomes in the immediate post-trauma environment and beyond for all children. Our model focuses on: (1) increasing awareness and understanding of children's post-trauma reactions, (2) exploring effective strategies for teachers within the classroom, and (3) developing policy and procedures for the identification and referral of children who may be at risk. More funding is required to help distribute training and resources and to make mental health following trauma a higher priority.

The development of social–emotional competence is of key importance during early childhood, particularly during the preschool years. We too often believe that early childhood education should focus on the promotion of academic skills to increase intelligence and, therefore, neglect the importance of social and emotional learning. Children who are socially and emotionally well adjusted do better at school, have increased confidence, have good relationships, take on and persist at challenging tasks and communicate well. The school setting is the optimal environment to implement interventions focused on increasing social–emotional competence. This article examines the importance of developing social–emotional competence during the early years of life and discusses universal intervention approaches within the classroom. A particular universal intervention program — The Fun FRIENDS program (Barrett, 2007) — aimed at increasing social–emotional competence is described in detail. The Fun FRIENDS program is a developmentally tailored, downward extension of the preexisting, evidence-based FRIENDS for Life program (Barrett 2004; 2005).

There is a relationship between career indecision and anxiety, however the relative contributions of state and trait anxiety are unclear in the literature. 110 first-year university students completed the State–Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and Career Decision Scale (CDS) to measure anxiety and career indecision. Regression analyses revealed that state and trait anxiety made independent contributions to career indecision and that state anxiety is a much stronger predictor of career certainty than is trait anxiety. Although anxiety significantly predicted career decidedness, participants did not indicate that anxiety impacted on their career decidedness in response to open-ended questions. As such, counselling clients may not be consciously aware that anxiety impacts on their career decidedness. It is recommended that counsellors create a relaxed environment to ease clients' career decision making.

Families, peer groups, and schools are important environments for children's positive growth and development. A theoretical model that linked children's perceptions of parenting, sense of connectedness to family, peers and school, along with peer group type, to adjustment was developed and tested. Data were collected from students and their parents. The model was supported and explained 56% of the variance with respect to children's reports. Family, school, and peer connectedness all independently predicted child reported adjustment. Differences were apparent between children's and parents’ reports, and the model did not convincingly predict parental views of their child's adjustment. There was evidence that non-familial social environments can have a positive, compensatory impact on children's emotional functioning — a most important finding for school personnel interested in student wellbeing.

According to official figures, most of the trouble in schools is caused by boys. This is because boys are more openly disruptive and overtly aggressive. However, recent research has uncovered forms of aggression more common among girls. This paper reports on a study in South Australian schools which explores gender and developmental differences in aggression. A peer estimation scale was administered to students in years 2, 6, 9 and 11 in two high schools and four primary schools. Boys were found to be more physically and verbally aggressive than girls but girls used more indirect forms of aggression during the high school years. The gender differences in aggression are linked to gender differences in friendship patterns. Implications for schools are briefly discussed.

Perfectionism has been shown to be related to depressive symptomatology in both adult and child populations. However, there are no known studies of levels of socially prescribed (SPP) and self-oriented perfectionism (SOP) in nonclinical children versus those with a clinically diagnosed depressive disorder. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to examine SPP and SOP as predictors of depressive diagnoses in a sample of 10- to 11-year-old children. Seven hundred and eighty-six children (390 boys, 396 girls) from primary schools in low socio-economic metropolitan areas completed the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) and the Child and Adolescent Perfectionism Scale (CAPS) as part of a larger study. Children who scored above the clinical cut-off for the CDI also completed part of the Diagnostic Interview for Children and Adolescents–IV. Fifty children met criteria for a diagnosis of a depressive disorder. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to predict diagnostic status from SPP, SOP, gender, and intervention group. SPP was the only significant predictor of diagnostic status. Implications for the treatment and prevention of childhood depression are discussed.

The aim of the current study was to examine how bullying by peers relates to self-esteem, school connectedness and motivation for academic success in an Australian high school. Questionnaires were completed by 975 students across years 7 to 12. As predicted, male students were subjected to more direct forms of bullying than female students. However, contrary to expectations, there were no significant differences between males and females in their reported experience of indirect forms of bullying. Also, students in the lower year levels of high school reported being bullied more frequently than students in high year levels. Findings supported predictions that students who were bullied by their peers at school tended to report having lower levels of self-esteem, feeling less connected to their peers, teachers and school, and being less motivated to perform well at school. These results may have implications for school-based intervention programs that are designed to reduce bullying behaviours.

Australia is a much sought-after destination of study for many thousands of international university students. However, tertiary study brings with it many challenges that may potentially precipitate psychological distress in international students. Psychological distress may be experienced in various ways. The aim of this study was to investigate the manner in which psychological distress is manifested in international students and the factors that contribute to their psychological distress. The participants consisted of 86 international students enrolled at a Queensland university who completed a battery of 9 self-report questionnaires. Results showed that obsessive–compulsiveness reflected by worry, ruminations and perfectionist tendencies was the most common symptom of psychological distress in international students. Dysfunctional coping was the only factor contributing to psychological distress. These findings have important implications for the international students with reference to the assessment of their mental health issues and the designing of suitable intervention programs.

This study examined associations between loneliness, a construct associated with serious adverse mental health outcomes, and positive mental wellbeing. Validated measures of loneliness (represented by friendship-related loneliness, isolation, positive attitude to solitude, and negative attitude to solitude) and positive mental wellbeing were administered to 1,143 adolescents from urban and rural schools. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed satisfactory model fit for both measures. A structural equation model confirmed significant positive associations between positive mental wellbeing and friendship-related loneliness and positive attitude to solitude; a significant negative association was found for isolation. Regression analyses provided support for significant differences in these associations according to gender, age, and geographical location (although only marginally). The implications of these findings during adolescence are reviewed.

Studies have found that moral disengagement plays a significant role in the continuation of bullying situations (Bonanno, 2005); however, the moral stance of cyber-bystanders — those who witness online bullying — is not yet clear. While research into traditional face-to-face bullying reported that peers would probably or certainly intervene to support victims in 43% of cases (Rigby & Johnson, 2006) actual intervention is reportedly much less (Atlas & Pepler, 1998; Craig & Pepler, 1997). Little is known, however, about the attitudes and behaviours of bystanders or witnesses when online, or their probable intentions to intervene. This study employed three digital animations of typical cyberbullying scenarios to explore young people's views of cyber-bystanders. Youth from Years 8–12 (mean age 15.06, N = 961) from one metropolitan secondary school in Adelaide, South Australia, completed an online survey after watching vignettes. To shed light on the rationale and thinking behind their understanding of bystanders and moral dis/engagement when online, this article reports on the qualitative responses from young people in relation to one of these animations/vignettes. The findings suggest that young people perceive cyber-bystanders to have the capacity to morally engage in cyberbullying incidents; however, there are various barriers to their active positive engagement. The implications can inform educators and school counsellors about possible ways to support students to intervene when they witness cyberbullying.

What strategies do students use to cope with bullying and how effective are they? Answers to such questions will not only help students understand how they can cope, but also inform school-wide policies and practices to reduce the incidence of bullying. To do this, schools need evidence on what strategies to focus on to most effectively target their intervention and prevention programs. Students across Years 8, 9 and 10 in three South Australian high schools (n = 1223) completed a Coping with Bullying questionnaire, indicating strategies they used, and 82 informed professionals (IPs) rated each strategy's effectiveness, along with its applicability to different bullying types. IPs generally agreed on which strategies were effective and ineffective and that the same strategies were appropriate for all types of bullying. Seriously bullied students reported under-using some effective strategies. No significant difference between males and females in strategy use was found. Awareness of effective and ineffective coping strategies provides schools with a workable framework for targeting prevention and/or intervention programs that align with extant knowledge on coping with bullying. Disseminating such research evidence is important as this study shows that seriously bullied students are evidently under-using many strategies that IPs in this study regarded as effective.

Victims use social support seeking (SSS) to buffer the negative effects of cyberbullying. It is unknown whether cyber-victims’ perceptions of harm and having poor peer and parental relationships influence SSS. Using a sample of 451 cyberbullying-victims, aged 12–18, 68% girls, this study examined relationships of gender, harm, peer rejection, parental attachment, offline victimisation and online aggression to SSS, and tested the interaction of harm with peer rejection and parental attachment. Findings from logistic regression revealed that poor parental attachment and higher peer rejection decreased SSS, and that the association between parental attachment and SSS was stronger among cyber-victims with higher harm. This study highlights the importance of assessing cyber-victims’ attachment and experiences with their peers when implementing preventative intervention programs.

Childhood experiences can affect individuals’ self-esteem and psychological resilience during personality and psychosocial development in adolescence and adulthood. The effect of positive childhood experiences on adulthood has rarely been investigated, with most studies focusing on negative aspects of childhood. Evidence shows that they also influence the development of psychological resilience and self-esteem. This study examined the relationship between positive childhood experiences, self-esteem, and psychological resilience. A total of 570 university students completed the Positive Childhood Experience Scale, Brief Resilience Scale and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. The results of structural equation modelling indicated that positive experiences significantly predicted self-esteem and resilience. Self-esteem also predicted psychological resilience. Most importantly, positive childhood experiences had an indirect effect on resilience through self-esteem. The results suggest that focusing on positive aspects of childhood is as important and functional as dealing with negative ones to contribute to self-esteem and resilience. We suggest that school psychologists and counsellors could integrate these results into intervention programs to improve resilience through increased self-esteem.

Poor school connectedness (SC), defined as students’ feelings of belonging, safety, and fairness at school, is a risk factor for negative psychosocial outcomes. Few studies have examined the specific relationship between SC and anxiety. This study examined the relation between SC and anxiety within a group of 114 clinically anxious youth (mean age = 10.82; SD = 2.93; 48.2% female; 70.2% White, non-Hispanic); age differences were also examined. Results indicated that SC was significantly negatively associated with age but unrelated to gender, race/ethnicity, socio-economic status, parent education, or presence of a comorbid disorder. Findings generally revealed that low SC was associated with greater total and domain specific anxiety. SC may play a unique role in the maintenance of global and domain specific anxiety symptoms.

Judgments about the quality of students' experience of school generally focus on their academic performance and indeed this is an important indicator but closer attention needs to be paid to equally important, more broadly based outcomes that include social/emotional adjustment as they also are shown to impact on students' lives at, and beyond school. In this study, students' academic performance and social/emotional adjustment were informed by data collected from both students and teachers. Teachers of years 5 to 9 students in 58 separate classes across 21 South Australia schools reported on randomly selected students in each of their classes yielding data for 888 students who themselves reported through a questionnaire on (a) the extent to which they perceived relationships with family, peers and teachers as sources of stress or support at school; (b) their psychological health; (c) coping strategies; (d) experience of bullying and victimisation; (e) their academic performance; and (f) feelings about and sense of belonging to school. Data were used to estimate direct and indirect effects of a path model of hypothesised influences on students' social/emotional adjustment to school. The model fit the data well. The quality of a student's experience of school is most accurately represented by the inter-relationship of both academic and social/emotional outcomes which are influenced in large part by the quality of the relationships (supportive or stressful) among students, not only with peers and families but also with teachers who exert just as strong, and a sometimes stronger influence, on students' wellbeing.

Preparing adolescents for transitioning from school to work has become a priority across all developed countries due to the increasingly difficult labour market conditions and changes related to technological advances. Most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has created additional uncertainties in the world of work. This article reviews the concept of career-related teacher support (CRTS) and illustrates the different roles that school teachers can have in influencing students’ career planning and decision making. The information should be beneficial to teachers, counsellors, researchers and policy-makers seeking to optimise school-based career guidance and counselling practices. Brief suggestions are also provided for future research and practice.

The present study examined protective factors associated with the wellbeing of 93 youth from a refugee background resettled in Brisbane, Australia. Wellbeing was defined as an absence of psychological distress and the presence of subjective wellbeing. Students at Milpera State High School, a special English language school, completed a battery of questionnaires. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses examined the relationship between protective factors and wellbeing, while controlling for sociodemographic characteristics. The results indicated that higher levels of school connectedness and acculturation were significantly associated with lower levels of psychological distress. Further, higher levels of school connectedness, acculturation and resilience, in addition to having a permanent visa, were significantly associated with higher levels of subjective wellbeing. Notably, 55% of the variance in subjective wellbeing was explained jointly by these factors. School connectedness, acculturation, resilience, and visa certainty were instrumental in enhancing aspects of wellbeing in the present sample of students from a refugee background. Implications for refugee-related policy and strategies in schools, mental health services, and at broader governmental levels are discussed.