The relationship between school climate and mental and emotional wellbeing over the transition from primary to secondary school

Background: School climate has often been described as the “quality and character of school life”, including both social and physical aspects of the school, that can positively promote behaviour, school achievement, and the social and emotional development of students. Methods: The current study examined the relationship between students’ mental and emotional wellbeing and factors pertaining to school climate, focussing on the domains of safety, social relationships and school connectedness, during the last year of their primary schooling (age 11–12 years) and their first 2 years of secondary school. Data was collected using a self-completion questionnaire, four times over 3 years from 1800 students’ aged 11–14 years. Multilevel modelling was used to determine the strongest school climate predictor of students’ mental and emotional wellbeing at each time point. Results: In the last year of primary school, peer support was the strongest protective predictor of wellbeing, while feeling less connected and less safe at school predicted mental wellbeing. Feeling safe at school was the strongest protective factor for student wellbeing in the first year of secondary school. In the second year of secondary school, peer support was the strongest protective factor for mental wellbeing, while feeling safe at school, feeling connected to school and having support from peers were predictive of emotional wellbeing. Conclusions: School climate factors of feeling safe at school, feeling connected to school, and peer support are all protective of mental and emotional wellbeing over the transition period while connectedness to teachers is protective of emotional wellbeing. Primary school appears to be an important time to establish quality connections to peers who have a powerful role in providing support for one another before the transition to secondary school. However, school policies and practices promoting safety and encouraging and enabling connectedness are important during the first years of secondary school. Recommendations for effective school policy and practice in both primary and sec- ondary schools to help enhance the mental and emotional wellbeing of adolescents are discussed

Engaging Primary Health Care Providers in the Promotion of Healthy Weight Among Young Children: Barriers and Enablers for Policy and Management

Recent national efforts to stem the alarming growth of childhood overweight and obesity in Australia have highlighted the importance of preventative strategies that focus beyond the child-on parents, families, primary health care providers (PHCPs) and child care services. But, while such efforts have to date focused on school-based interventions, once poor eating habits and sedentary lifestyles have set in, a growing body of research is indicating that PHCPs can play a more influential role in monitoring and modifying factors affecting prevention and early intervention in preschool children. This paper presents the findings of a systematic review to: (a) identify key barriers to the effective engagement of PHCPs with parents and child care staff in the promotion of healthy weight among children aged 2-6 years, (b) appraise promising interventions for strengthening the capacity of PHCPs to effectively deal with these barriers, and (c) synthesise policy options to encourage and engage PHCPs. The study draws on the lessons of promising interventions to highlight the urgent need to address organisational, attitudinal, knowledge, skills and training barriers, to facilitate the engagement of PHCPs in different settings-based environments (clinical, child care, home and community)

The Forms of Bullying Scale (FBS): Validity and reliability estimates for a measure of bullying victimization and perpetration in adolescence

The study of bullying behavior and its consequences for young people depends on valid and reliable measurement of bullying victimization and perpetration. Although numerous self-report bullying-related measures have been developed, robust evidence of their psychometric properties is scant, and several limitations inhibit their applicability. The Forms of Bullying Scale (FBS), with versions to measure bullying victimization (FBS-V) and perpetration (FBS-P), was developed on the basis of existing instruments, for use with 12-to 15-year-old adolescents to economically, yet comprehensively measure both bullying perpetration and victimization. Measurement properties were estimated. Scale validity was tested using data from 2 independent studies of 3,496 Grade 8 and 783 Grade 8-10 students, respectively. Construct validity of scores on the FBS was shown in confirmatory factor analysis. The factor structure was not invariant across gender. Strong associations between the FBS-V and FBS-P and separate single-item bullying items demonstrated adequate concurrent validity. Correlations, in directions as expected with social-emotional outcomes (i.e., depression, anxiety, conduct problems, and peer support), provided robust evidence of convergent and discriminant validity. Responses to the FBS items were found to be valid and concurrently reliable measures of self-reported frequency of bullying victimization and perpetration, as well as being useful to measure involvement in the different forms of bullying behaviors

Moral Disengagement of Pure Bullies and Bully/Victims: Shared and Distinct Mechanisms

The vast majority of adolescents recognize that bullying is morally wrong, yet bullying remains a problem in secondary schools, indicating young people may disengage from their moral values to engage in bullying. But it is unclear whether the same mechanisms enabling moral disengagement are active for bully/victims (who both bully and are bullied) as for pure bullies (who are not targets of bullying). This study tested the hypotheses that mechanisms of moral disengagement, including blaming the victim and minimizing the impact of bullying, may operate differently in bully/victims compared to pure bullies. From a sample of 1895 students from grades 7–9 (50.6% female; 83.4% from English speaking homes), 1870 provided self-reports on bullying involvement and mechanisms of moral disengagement associated with bullying. Two cut-offs were compared for bullying involvement (as perpetrator and as target of bullying) during the previous school term: a conservative cut-off (every few weeks or more often) and a liberal cut-off (once-or-twice). Using the conservative cut-off, both pure bullies and bully/victims enlisted moral disengagement mechanisms to justify bullying more than did uninvolved students and pure victims, with no significant difference in scores on any of the moral disengagement scales between pure bullies and bully/victims. For the liberal cut-off, bully/victims reported lower overall moral disengagement scores than did pure bullies, and specifically less distortion of consequences, diffusion of responsibility, and euphemistic labeling. This study advances bullying research by extending the role of moral disengagement in bullying episodes beyond pure bullies to victims, both pure victims and bully/victims. Examination of specific moral disengagement mechanisms and the extent of involvement in bullying enabled a more nuanced differentiation between the bullying groups. These results will inform future interventions aimed at reducing the use of moral disengagement mechanisms that sustain bullying and victimization. Targeted interventions are needed to challenge specific moral disengagement mechanisms from the perspectives of pure bullies and bully/victims.</p

Teaching Access, or Freedom of Information Law

Based on the author\u27s experience developing and administering the course and materials, this article provides an introduction and resources to teach a graduate journalism or professional law school course on access to government, commonly called freedom of information law , which may be constructed as a capstone course in law school. The appendices provide supporting material and references

The Methyl-CpG Binding Proteins Mecp2, Mbd2 and Kaiso Are Dispensable for Mouse Embryogenesis, but Play a Redundant Function in Neural Differentiation

The precise molecular changes that occur when a neural stem (NS) cell switches from a programme of self-renewal to commit towards a specific lineage are not currently well understood. However it is clear that control of gene expression plays an important role in this process. DNA methylation, a mark of transcriptionally silent chromatin, has similarly been shown to play important roles in neural cell fate commitment in vivo. While DNA methylation is known to play important roles in neural specification during embryonic development, no such role has been shown for any of the methyl-CpG binding proteins (Mecps) in mice.. No evidence for functional redundancy between these genes in embryonic development or in the derivation or maintenance of neural stem cells in culture was detectable. However evidence for a defect in neuronal commitment of triple knockout NS cells was found.Although DNA methylation is indispensable for mammalian embryonic development, we show that simultaneous deficiency of three methyl-CpG binding proteins genes is compatible with apparently normal mouse embryogenesis. Nevertheless, we provide genetic evidence for redundancy of function between methyl-CpG binding proteins in postnatal mice

Transfection of Neuroprogenitor Cells with Iron Nanoparticles for Magnetic Resonance Imaging Tracking: Cell Viability, Differentiation, and Intracellular Localization

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can track labeled cells in the brain. The use of hemagglutinating virus of Japan envelopes (HVJ-Es) to effectively introduce the contrast agent to neural progenitor cells (NPCs) is limited to date despite their high NPC affinity.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/41579/1/11307_2005_Article_8.pd