In light of concerning evidence that many young people with mental disorders are not receiving appropriate mental health intervention, school-based mental health screening has been advocated as one way to improve identification of at-risk youth. Despite having much promise, universal screening in schools remains a relatively uncommon practice internationally. Various barriers that deter school psychologists and counsellors from screening have been identified, including lack of resourcing to implement screening, lack of knowledge about the mechanics of how to carry out a screening program, and concern about how to manage the anticipated increased workload generated by following up identified students. In this practice-based paper we discuss a four-stage process that guides school psychologists and counsellors in the establishment of a school-based screening program, with specific reference to overcoming perceived barriers.

Although several previous scales have been developed to measure the presence and effects of the stressful demands encountered by university students, most of these have been validated with samples drawn from US universities, commonly using only undergraduate psychology students. In addition, many of the items used are from scales designed for application within general adult populations, with little focus upon the specific stressors met by students. In order to identify what are the major changes these students encounter that they find stressful, a sample of 32 university students from different degree areas within an Australian university was individually interviewed using a standardised protocol. Results indicated that (unlike US data) these students found dislocation to family, friend and partner relationships most stressful, followed by the time demands of study and financial restrictions. Limitations of the study, future research directions and implications for counsellors are discussed.

For young people still at school, the school setting is vital to their mental health and wellbeing. Not only does the school environment have a direct and indirect impact on mental health, it provides an opportunistic setting in which to identify and respond to emerging mental health problems. To do this effectively, schools and school staff must work in collaboration with the young people themselves, their families, and other support services within the community, particularly primary health care services, including general practice. The importance of developing effective partnerships and care pathways between schools and the primary health care sector is being increasingly acknowledged, and initiatives such as MindMatters Plus GP have advanced our understanding in this area.

As increasing numbers of adolescents become involved in online activities, many also become victims of cyberharassment. This pilot project investigates how a program teaching coping skills (Best of Coping program, BOC) and a program teaching cybersafety (Cyber Savvy Teens program, CST) can optimise adolescents' capacity to cope online. Thirty-three adolescents were divided into three groups: control, BOC and CST. Participants completed a questionnaire on cyberknowledge and habits preprogram; the Adolescent Coping scale and the Kessler Psychological Distress scale (K-10) pre- and post-program; and a program evaluation form post-program. Participants in both intervention groups demonstrated improvements in their overall mental health and in making better online choices post-program. The BOC program was found to be a better program for improving general coping than CST alone, while the CST program was better at tackling cyberspecific issues.

This study investigated the relationship between bullying involvement (bully, victim, bully/victim, and not involved) and gender, academic achievement, self-efficacies (academic, social, and emotional self-efficacies). Data were collected by administering the Revised Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire (Olweus, 1996), the Self-Efficacy Questionnaire for Children (Murris, 2001), and a demographic information form to 721 middle school students (50.3% female, 49.7% male). The associations between bullying involvement and the independent variables were evaluated using a multiple correspondence analysis. Results showed that females tended to be not involved or victims, whereas males tended to be bullies or both bullies and victims. There were moderate associations between all self-efficacies, academic achievement, and bullying involvement. In particular, high self-efficacies and high academic achievement were related to being not involved in bullying, while low self-efficacies and low academic achievement were associated with either being a victim or both bully and victim.

The present study explored the associations among positive psychological traits, school functioning, and psychological adjustment of elementary schoolchildren. Participants included 392 children in Grades 6–8 attending a Turkish public elementary school. There were 48.2% (189) female and 51.8% (203) male participants, and they ranged in age from 11 to 14 years (M = 12.83, SD = .94). Findings of the study indicated that youths with high positive psychological traits reported higher levels of prosocial behaviour, school belonging and academic achievement, and lower levels of externalising and internalising problems. Path analysis outcomes revealed that the positive psychology constructs had significant and large associations with prosocial behaviour, school belonging, internalising and externalising problems, as well as small-to-large associations with student academic achievement. Overall, the combination of these positive traits, namely covitality, had stronger associations with youths’ school functioning and psychological adjustment than the constructs that comprise covitality. The outcomes suggest substantial associations between positive psychological traits and youths’ school-based and psychological characteristics.

Technology and social networking tools and sites are changing the way young people build and maintain their social connections with others (Boyd & Ellison, 2008). This study utilised a new measure, The Self in a Social Context, Virtual Connectedness subscale (SSC-VC subscale), to examine the effects of social networking tools and sites on social and emotional wellbeing among 1,037 Australian young people aged 11–18 years. A maximum likelihood factor analysis identified three strong factors: Fit In (α = .81), Public Self (α = .79) and Connected Self (α = .83). Significant main effects were revealed for the number of times students checked their Facebook F(12, 2415) = 13.8, p < .001, and for gender, F(3, 913) = 10.8, p < .001, but no interaction effect was found. Univariate tests also revealed a significant difference for Frequency of checking Facebook, F(4, 915), = 4.98, and for Gender, F(1, 915), = 46.92, p < .001 on the dependent variable of Emotional Difficulties. These findings suggest that social networking sites, though used differently by males and females, provide an important forum for building social connections across groups.

A significant number of children suffer long-term psychological disturbance following exposure to a natural disaster. Evidence suggests that a dose-response relationship exists, so that children and adolescents who experience the most intense or extensive exposure to the risk factors for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are likely to develop the most serious and persistent symptoms. Risk factors include gender, age, personality, extent of exposure to the natural disaster, amount of damage to property and infrastructure, witnessing the death or injury of others or perceiving a threat to one's own life. Knowing these factors enables various strategies to be put in place to decrease the risk of psychological disturbance following traumatic events. Reestablishing a sense of safety, security and normality is important in the aftermath of a natural disaster, and promoting social connectedness, positive family functioning and effective coping mechanisms can make children more resilient in the face of catastrophic events. This paper examines the risk and protective factors associated with the development of PTSD, and considers how schools can use this knowledge to contribute to the recovery effort and reduce the prevalence of PTSD among pupils in the wake of a natural disaster.

This study investigated the social, emotional and mental wellbeing predictors of bullying victimisation and perpetration for boarding students following the transition from primary school to secondary boarding school. Longitudinal data on 76 male and 74 female boarding students in Grades 7, 8 and 9 was used from a larger longitudinal study of 3,462 students. A spike in frequency of bullying perpetration occurred immediately after the transition to secondary school and boarding school, with an increase in bullying perpetration continuing to occur throughout the following 2 years. Those boarding students reporting higher levels of depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms were significantly more at risk of frequent bullying victimisation at the beginning of Grade 8, while boarding students experiencing conduct problems and emotional difficulties were more likely to engage in frequent bullying perpetration. Peer support and feeling safe were found to be factors most likely to decrease frequent bullying victimisation. The sustained nature of bullying behaviour highlights the importance of addressing attitudes towards bullying both prior to and immediately after the commencement of boarding school. It is recommended that boarding schools adopt a targeted and systematic whole school approach to bullying prevention, while promoting positive interactions and relationships with peers.

Sandplay therapy is a technique that is a potentially valuable tool for guidance counsellors working in the context of challenging school environments. It is particularly suited to work with children and adolescents as it provides unique and developmentally appropriate opportunities for them to engage in the therapeutic process. In fact, as it is play-based and developmentally appropriate, sandplay may be a useful adjunct for the mainly cognitive and behavioural techniques most commonly used by school guidance counsellors. It provides a multiple intelligences perspective and may meet the specific needs of children with particular cognitive and socioemotional difficulties more effectively than the traditional ‘talking’ therapies.

Australia's ‘black’ history has had and continues to have a pervasive and adverse impact on Indigenous Australians. In fact, Indigenous Australians are the most disadvantaged Australians based on all socioeconomic indicators that serve to drive life potential. There is also a dearth of scholarly research available, particularly in relation to Indigenous children in the schooling sector and mental health. However, recent research with both Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations offers new, potentially potent, solutions. In this article we provide (a) a rationale for Indigenous mental health being a significant social issue of our time, (b) a summary of some recent research findings pertaining to mental health of young Indigenous Australians, (c) outline why a positive psychology approach offers a new solution for intervention with specific reference to the importance of the self-concept construct for Indigenous students, and (d) call upon counsellors, practitioners, and policy makers to implement and evaluate the latter approach.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a non-intrusive and brief screening measure for identifying young people at risk for depression. Coping and depression questionnaires were completed by a sample of 115 Year 9 students from two post-primary schools in Melbourne, Australia. The study replicated the frequently reported findings in the literature of positive associations between an avoidant, emotion-focused, or non-productive coping style, together with inverse associations with an active or productive coping style, and depressive syndromes. When results were analysed based on a median split of coping style scores, adolescents who utilised more non-productive coping strategies together with fewer productive coping strategies reported significantly higher levels of depressive syndromes than any of the other categories. The findings not only suggest that a brief measure of coping may be appropriate in the early identification of students who may be at risk for depression, but also have implications for the design of future preventive and early intervention programs.

This study investigated whether a mental health promotion program delivered by primary school teachers to prevent internalising problems in children had any impact on the teachers' job-related affective wellbeing. Teacher job-related anxiety and job-related depression were measured before teaching the Aussie Optimism program, and after implementation at 12 and 24 months. Schools and teachers were randomised to one of three groups: Aussie Optimism with Teacher Training; Aussie Optimism with Teacher Training and Coaching; or the Usual Care control group, which implemented the regular Western Australian Health Education Curriculum. In all three groups, teachers taught lessons to promote student self-management and interpersonal skills during the last two years of primary school. Teachers in schools in the control group received training in Aussie Optimism after the first year of intervention. Data was collected from 405 primary school teachers in 63 government primary schools. Multiple hierarchical regression analyses showed partial support for the hypotheses, with teachers in the Training and Coaching intervention group reporting significantly lower levels of job-related anxiety at the 12-month assessment and depression at both the 12- and 24-month assessments when compared to teachers in the Usual Care control group. There were no significant differences between teachers in the Training only group and the control group after intervention.

Problems in childhood and adolescence, such as pronounced externalising and internalising problems, are associated with a relatively high risk for long-lasting psychosocial difficulties. Therefore, it is essential to understand what protects youth from externalising and internalising problems. The present article has three purposes: (1) To review previous research reviews concerning which factors that have been identified as protecting youth from externalising and internalising problems, (2) to identify and suggest key areas of focus for future research, and (3) to discuss implications of this knowledge for practice. From the 29 included reviews, it can be concluded that an extensive list of factors have been identified as being potentially protective in youths. These factors exist in the individual and the family, as well as outside the family. However, from this review of reviews, it is also evident that many important questions remain unanswered. Answers to these questions would help make interventions for youths at risk more effective. How to use the existing research results concerning protective factors in guidance and counselling with youths is discussed.

The present study investigated the effects of supervision on the management of vicarious traumatisation among telephone and online counsellors on BoysTown Helplines. BoysTown Helplines include Kids Helpline, a 24-hour national counselling service for young people aged 5–25 years of age, and Parentline (PL), a counselling service for parents in Queensland and Northern Territory. The services provide telephone and email counselling services and Kids Helpline also provides web counselling. All counsellors (100%) worked as Kids Helpline counsellors (N = 38) and 42.1% (n = 16) as PL counsellors. The counsellors conducted 50,979 counselling sessions in 2008, of which 38,703 were completed over the telephone and 12,276 online. Of these, approximately 44% involved trauma clients, putting the counsellors at risk of suffering some level of vicarious traumatisation. The findings from 38 supervised telephone and online counsellors showed that vicarious traumatisation fell within normal limits and positive coping strategies were above average. While correlations did not prove to be significant between supervision and vicarious traumatisation, the size of counsellors’ trauma caseload proved to be strongly related to both vicarious traumatisation and negative coping style.

Partners from nine European countries developed a cyberbullying training manual for the benefit of trainers working with parents, school staff and young people.1 The development of the training manual built on a two-level qualitative research process that combined elements of the Delphi method and online focus groups. The two studies outlined in this article aimed to assess trainers' and experts' views on the problem of cyberbullying while also gathering insight in relation to their preferences in terms of a training manual. This article outlines the main outcomes of a content analysis of experts' and trainers' views. According to experts and trainers, the sources of cyberbullying were specifically related to new technical developments and new patterns of usage, a lack of media literacy and media education, and the lack of appropriate laws, control and reporting mechanisms. Approaches for tackling cyberbullying suggested by experts and trainers included the provision of enhanced information on ICT and e-safety, adequate rules, monitoring mechanisms and sanctions. Furthermore a range of approaches targeting children and young people, parents and other adults, schools as well as approaches run by authorities and IT providers were suggested. In terms of the elements and style of a training manual, experts and trainers emphasised that it should be practically oriented, and that elements like narratives, case examples or video clips would be vital for the implementation of training.

This article outlines and appraises the method of shared concern as developed by Anatol Pikas and applied as a technique for resolving bully–victim problems in schools. It includes a description of how the method can be applied in schools, and critically examines some objections that have been raised to its use. These objections are shown to be largely based on misunderstandings of the method. It is concluded that the method of shared concern is, in fact, well grounded theoretically and can be highly effective in reducing bullying when employed by trained practitioners, especially in addressing problems in which there is group involvement by perpetrators of bullying in secondary schools.

Cluster analysis of school students' responses to the Student Motivation Scale (Martin, 2001, in press) identified two groups of students separated on the basis of their self-belief, sense of control, and fear of failure. The first group reflects failure avoidance and is represented by a lethal cocktail of low self-belief, low control, and high fear of failure. The second group reflects success orientation and is represented by high self-belief, high control, and low fear of failure. Follow-up analyses to validate these two clusters showed that the failure avoidant students were significantly higher in anxiety and pessimism and significantly lower in achievement. Implications are discussed for intervention and prevention aimed at enhancing students' self-belief and control and reducing students' fear of failure. Also discussed is the need to develop goals, incentives, and climates for students that draw them to attain success rather than drive them to avoid failure.

School counselling services have always been unpopular among Malaysian students. Many researchers have studied what prevents students from seeking mental health services. However, there is a lack of study on the barriers to seeking help in the context of Malaysian school counselling services. Using a sample of Chinese high school students (N = 277), this qualitative study explored the under-utilisation of school counselling services. A thematic analysis was used to analyse an open-ended question, and the findings uncovered contextualised issues such as: conceptualisation of problems and the shameful, fearful, concerned, and responsible self that contributes to the under-utilisation of school counselling services.

A small-scale evaluation of a psycho-educational program on cyberbullying with a group of Year 6 girls was implemented over six sessions, and was subsequently evaluated. Its content included knowledge of cyberbullying and its effects, and management and safety strategies for the participants and their peers. Increases in the girls’ detailed knowledge of cyberbullying and safety strategies followed the program's implementation. Students provided positive evaluations of the program and also suggested some good ideas for a schoolwide policy on cyberbullying. To date there has been minimal intervention research on cyberbullying, and few studies with primary-aged students. The present study redresses this imbalance.