The objectives of disaster education from teachers’ perspectives

This study aims to examine teachers’ judgments on the objectives of disaster education regarding basic three aspects; clarity, measurability and attainability. A 3-point Likert-type scale was developed, and completed by 142 teachers who participated in several in-service trainings about disaster education. Descriptive statistics were carried out to analyze the data. Results of this study revealed that there was no single objective that teachers perceived as clear, measurable and attainable at one hundred percent. So, there is an urgent need to do a comprehensive list of learning objectives in a way that they are perceived clearer, more measureable and attainable for the purpose of achieving a well-qualified disaster education including all domains of disaster education, namely cognitive, affective and psychomotor

Misuse of ICTs among Turkish children and youth: A study on newspaper reports

This study investigated the misuse of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) among children and youth. The data source was newspaper reports obtained from three Turkish daily newspapers, between January 2006 and December 2012. In that seven years period, a total of 66 ICT misuse incidents were reported in the selected newspapers. Document analysis was performed on the newspaper reports. Themes and codes were entered as variables to manage the data quantitatively. Results revealed that ICT misuse was most commonly conducted through cell phones, social networking sites, instant messaging and web pages. Young people’s involvement of ICT misuse had three forms; from young perpetrator/s to the young victim/s, from young perpetrator/s to adult victim/s and from adult perpetrator/s to young victim/s. ICTs were commonly misused for sexual abuse, insulting or taking revenge. While perpetrators were mostly males whose ages ranged between 14 and 52, a great majority of ICT misuse victims were females, with an age range from 8 to 46. Negative psychological and physiological impacts were reported by the victims

The Reliability and Validity of the Lifespan Sibling Relationship Scale in a Turkish Emerging Adult Sample

The present study examines the reliability and validity of the Turkish version of the Lifespan Sibling Relationship Scale (LSRS; Riggio, 2000). A total of 578 (336 female, 242 male) Turkish emerging adults participated in this study. A Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was used to test construct validity for the original six-factor model of the scale with 48 items. Results of the CFA indicated a good model fit. Furthermore, the second-order CFA result showed that the scale can be scored for both the subdimensions and the test as a whole. Multi-group CFA result revealed that the measured construct is invariant across the genders. The results suggested that the Turkish version of the LSRS had adequate internal consistency and construct validity, indicating that it can be reliably used to measure attitudes toward sibling relationship in emerging adulthood among a Turkish population

Intolerance of uncertainty and mental wellbeing: serial mediation by rumination and fear of COVID-19

The novel coronavirus-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has become globally widespread with millions of confirmed cases and many countries implementing various levels of quarantine. Therefore, it is important to investigate the psychological consequences of this process, given the unique situation that has been experienced globally. Therefore, the present study examined whether intolerance of uncertainty was related to mental wellbeing and whether this relationship was mediated by rumination and fear of COVID-19. The sample comprised 1772 Turkish individuals (aged between 18 and 73 years) from 79 of 81 cities in Turkey, who completed measures of mental wellbeing, intolerance of uncertainty, rumination, and fear of COVID-19. Results of serial mediation analyses showed that intolerance of uncertainty had a significant direct effect on mental wellbeing. Rumination and fear of COVID-19, in combination, serially mediated the association between intolerance of uncertainty and mental wellbeing. The findings are discussed within the framework of the psychological consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and related literature

Adolescents' involvement in cyber bullying and perceptions of school: the importance of perceived peer acceptance for female adolescents

Young people are spending increasing amounts of time using digital technology and, as such, are at great risk of being involved in cyber bullying as a victim, bully, or bully/victim. Despite cyber bullying typically occurring outside the school environment, the impact of being involved in cyber bullying is likely to spill over to school. Fully 285 11- to 15-year-olds (125 male and 160 female, M age = 12.19 years, SD = 1.03) completed measures of cyber bullying involvement, self-esteem, trust, perceived peer acceptance, and perceptions of the value of learning and the importance of school. For young women, involvement in cyber bullying as a victim, bully, or bully/victim negatively predicted perceptions of learning and school, and perceived peer acceptance mediated this relationship. The results indicated that involvement in cyber bullying negatively predicted perceived peer acceptance which, in turn, positively predicted perceptions of learning and school. For young men, fulfilling the bully/victim role negatively predicted perceptions of learning and school. Consequently, for young women in particular, involvement in cyber bullying spills over to impact perceptions of learning. The findings of the current study highlight how stressors external to the school environment can adversely impact young women's perceptions of school and also have implications for the development of interventions designed to ameliorate the effects of cyber bullying

Are Adolescents Engaged in the Problematic Use of Social Networking Sites More Involved in Peer Aggression and Victimization?

The problematic use of social networking sites is becoming a major public health concern. Previous research has found that adolescents who engage in a problematic use of social networking sites are likely to show maladjustment problems. However, little is known about its links with peer aggression and victimization. The main goal of this study was to analyze the relationship between problematic use of online social networking sites, peer aggression ¿overt vs. relational and reactive vs. instrumental¿, and peer victimization ¿overt physical and verbal, and relational¿, taking into account gender and age (in early and mid-adolescence). Participants were selected using randomized cluster sampling considering school and class as clusters. A battery of instruments was applied to 1,952 adolescents¿ secondary students from Spain (Andalusia) (50.4% boys), aged 11 to 16 (M = 14.07, SD = 1.39). Results showed that girls and 14¿16 adolescents were more involved in a problematic use of online social networking sites. Furthermore, adolescents with high problematic use of online social networking sites were more involved in overt¿reactive and instrumental¿and relational¿reactive and instrumental¿aggressive behaviors, and self-reported higher levels of overt¿physical and verbal¿and relational victimization. Even though boys indicated higher levels of all types of victimization, girls with high problematic use of online social networking sites scored the highest on relational victimization. Relating to age, early adolescents (aged 11¿14) with higher problematic use of online social networking sites reported the highest levels of overt verbal and relational victimization. Overall, results suggested the co-occurrence of problematic use of online social networking sites, peer aggression and victimization. In addition, results showed the influence that gender and age had on peer victimization. This study highlights the continuity between offline and online domains with regard to maladjustment problems in adolescence.Departamento de Educación y Psicología SocialVersión del edito

What makes a bully a cyberbully? Unravelling the characteristics of cyberbullies across twenty-five European countries

The characteristics of bullies who act face-to-face and those who do so in cyberspace were compared directly in one sample across twenty-five countries. The role of cross-country differences in technological infrastructure was also explored. Cyberbullies compared to face-to-face bullies were more likely to engage in risky online activities, spend more time online, and found it easier to be themselves online. Private access to the internet did not make a difference. Gender differences showed girls more likely to be cyber- than face-to-face bullies if they have a profile on a social networking site. Age and internet ability beliefs were also positively but not independently associated with cyberbullying. Cross-country differences were small and patterns remained mostly stable across countries, suggesting that individual and not country-level characteristics are pivotal in explaining cyberbullying

Examining Fears of Turkish Children and Adolescents with Regard to Age, Gender and Socioeconomic Status

The aim of this study is to examine the nature and severity of children and adolescents fears with regard to age, gender and socioeconomic status in Turkey. 1315 children and adolescents (642 females and 673 males) between the ages of 8 and 18 from low and middle socioeconomic status were administered Turkish version of Fear Survey Schedule for Children (Serim-Yildiz & Erdur-Baker, in press). Female children at age 8 coming from low socioeconomic status reported the highest fear scores for all fear factors, while the lowest fear scores were reported by male adolescents coming from different socioeconomic status. (c) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd