Students' perceptions of the rules and restrictions of gender at school : a psychometric evaluation of the Gender Climate Scale (GCS)

Research in the field of gender and sexuality diversity and, more specifically, negative attitudes toward gender and sexuality diverse individuals, has acknowledged the relationship between individuals’ endorsement of sex-differentiated, normative gender roles and their attitudes toward gender and sexuality diversity. Such work has highlighted how normative expectations of gender, drawn from binarized gender roles, sit at the heart of homophobic and transphobic attitudes. Previous research in high school settings has measured gender and sexuality diverse (GSD) students’ experiences of homo/transphobic harassment as an element of ‘school climate’ with regard to acceptance of gender and sexuality diversity. However, to date, no research has measured GSD students’ perceptions about how valued binarized, gender-normative roles are at their schools, or the ways in which these norms might impact, and potentially constrain, these students’ academic and social schooling lives. The aim of the present study was to address this gap by developing and testing a new, multidimensional measure (the Gender Climate Scale; GCS) of GSD students’ ideas about how gender norms function within their school. Using a convenience sample of 2,376 Australian high school students who identify as GSD, the GCS was evaluated for its reliability, construct, and criterion validity and measurement invariance using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) methods. Findings revealed that the estimates produced from the GCS were reliable, valid, and invariant across student reported gender (male/female/non-binary) and location (urban/rural). Criterion validity was supported, with GCS factors representing the promotion of traditional gender roles in the schooling environment negatively associated with perceived school belonging and inclusion and positively associated with bullying and social isolation. Future research with the GCS can inform school and curriculum policy on this important measure of school climate, not just for GSD students but for whole student cohorts

Creating socially inclusive communities : a multi-method study evaluating the relations between social capital, biopsychosocial constructs, and economic outcomes in disadvantaged settings

Research has shown that social and economic disadvantage are becoming more geographically concentrated, with social isolation and intergenerational poverty becoming entrenched in whole communities. Programs aimed at building social capital attempt to improve social support networks and inclusion within the community, and may have other benefits such as improving economic outcomes, family functioning, and individuals’ health and well-being. This project addresses the gap in the research for sound multidimensional assessment of social capital and its relationship with social, economic, and health outcomes. Social capital and adolescent biopsychosocial outcomes were studied in 1371 secondary students living in two disadvantaged communities within New South Wales, Australia. A new multidimensional measure of social capital was developed, tested, and found to be psychometrically sound. Preliminary analyses revealed a number of significant associations between facets of social capital and a range of youth socio-emotional outcomes. Higher levels of social capital and belongingness in school and community were generally associated with better academic self-concept, enhanced general health, as well as reduced negative mental health symptoms, perceived discrimination, and risky behaviours. Some outcomes were more strongly associated with family and peer social capital, while others associated more with neighbour and community social capital, indicating that attempts to build social capital need to be targeted across the whole community. This study supports the notion that social capital can be measured empirically and is beneficial in alleviating many of the detrimental outcomes that are commonly associated with those living in areas of entrenched disadvantage

A Critical review of the current cyber bullying research : definitional, theoretical and methodological issues. Where do we go from here?

Past documentation of schoolyard behaviour showed that bullying existed long before it became a focus for empirical researchers, psychologists, and educators (Rigby, 2002). Recent interest has arisen with the increase in the reporting of bullying behaviours occurring within the workplace, classroom, and via new communication technologies (Patchin & Hinduja, 2006; Rigby, 2002). Research has also increased due to the recognition of bullying as an invasive school issue, with harmful long-term outcomes for many students and school communities (Hinduja & Patchin, 2007; Li, 2006; Mason, 2008). With recent widespread use of new technologies, school students today have expanded traditional bullying techniques into the virtual environment. This is known as cyber bullying, and includes the use of online chat, email, websites, and instant messenger (IMs) social networking sites to bully others (Aricak et al., 2008; Smith et al., 2008). The present investigation will be conducted to: investigate the characteristics, motivations, and goals of those who engage in cyber bullying; the impact of cyber bullying on bullies, targets, bystanders, families, and the community; the relations between cyber bullying and traditional bullying types; and the potential characteristics required for successful cyber bullying interventions. The primary proposed outcome for this research investigation is to build the capacity of students, parents, school and community by investigating and understanding the complexity of why adolescents become involved in the vicious bullying cycle and to later utilise these findings to prevent, address and minimise cyber bullying to enhance young Australians cyber safety, health, and wellbeing in a socially innovative and sustainable manner. In summation, this paper will be highlighting the previous theoretical and methodological problematic issues in past bullying research, will be discussing the gaps in the literature and provide a summary and justification for a newly proposed cyber bullying study. Cyber bullying is a relatively new phenomenon, and literature on the area is only starting to uncover and explore the nature, definitions, incident rates, gender differences, and the affects this type of bullying has on adolescent students. Australian research it is yet to elucidate the nature and prevalence rates for different cyber bullying forms, which is crucial to understand in order to create cyber bullying prevention programs (Lodge & Frydenberg, 2007). Considering the trend that traditional bullying behaviour increases as students get older, peaking during the early high school years, it is not clear whether the same trends exist for those using cyber methods. However, a study conducted by Kowalski and Limber (2008) with students from year 7, 8, and 9 found that 11% of students had been cyber bullied, 7% had been involved in both bullying and being bullied using cyber methods, and 4 % had cyber bullied another person in the last two months. These results suggested that this type of bullying may be on the rise as 50% of the teenagers in their sample owned a mobile phone, and 97% of students had access to the internet, with a large proportion of these students using electronic devices daily. Li (2007) also investigated cyber bullying with 177 grade seven students and found 54% were both bullied and targeted with traditional methods, and a quarter of this group had also been subjected to cyber-bullying. Furthermore, one in three students had bullied another by traditional styles; and 15% had bullied others via technological communication sources. However, these cyber-bullying prevalence rates may be overestimated due to the problematic research practices used (i.e., dichotomous variables, single-items indictors).12 page(s

Seeding success : Aboriginal primary students

14 page(s

A critical review of the current cyber bullying research : definitional, theoretical and methodological issues. Where do we go from here?

Past documentation of schoolyard behaviour showed that bullying existed long before it became a focus for empirical researchers, psychologists, and educators (Rigby, 2002). Recent interest has arisen with the increase in the reporting of bullying behaviours occurring within the workplace, classroom, and via new communication technologies (Patchin & Hinduja, 2006; Rigby, 2002). Research has also increased due to the recognition of bullying as an invasive school issue, with harmful long-term outcomes for many students and school communities (Hinduja & Patchin, 2007; Li, 2006; Mason, 2008). With recent widespread use of new technologies, school students today have expanded traditional bullying techniques into the virtual environment. This is known as cyber bullying, and includes the use of online chat, email, websites, and instant messenger (IMs) social networking sites to bully others (Aricak et al., 2008; Smith et al., 2008).The present investigation will be conducted to: investigate the characteristics, motivations, and goals of those who engage in cyber bullying; the impact of cyber bullying on bullies, targets, bystanders, families, and the community; the relations between cyber bullying and traditional bullying types; and the potential characteristics required for successful cyber bullying interventions. The primary proposed outcome for this research investigation is to build the capacity of students, parents, school and community by investigating and understanding the complexity of why adolescents become involved in the vicious bullying cycle and to later utilise these findings to prevent, address and minimise cyber bullying to enhance young Australians cyber safety, health, and wellbeing in a socially innovative and sustainable manner. In summation, this paper will be highlighting the previous theoretical and methodological problematic issues in past bullying research, will be discussing the gaps in the literature and provide a summary and justification for a newly proposed cyber bullying study. Cyber bullying is a relatively new phenomenon, and literature on the area is only starting to uncover and explore the nature, definitions, incident rates, gender differences, and the affects this type of bullying has on adolescent students. Australian research it is yet to elucidate the nature and prevalence rates for different cyber bullying forms, which is crucial to understand in order to create cyber bullying prevention programs (Lodge & Frydenberg, 2007). Considering the trend that traditional bullying behaviour increases as students get older, peaking during the early high school years, it is not clear whether the same trends exist for those using cyber methods. However, a study conducted by Kowalski and Limber (2008) with students from year 7, 8, and 9 found that 11% of students had been cyber bullied, 7% had been involved in both bullying and being bullied using cyber methods, and 4 % had cyber bullied another person in the last two months. These results suggested that this type of bullying may be on the rise as 50% of the teenagers in their sample owned a mobile phone, and 97% of students had access to the internet, with a large proportion of these students using electronic devices daily. Li (2007) also investigated cyber bullying with 177 grade seven students and found 54% were both bullied and targeted with traditional methods, and a quarter of this group had also been subjected to cyber-bullying. Furthermore, one in three students had bullied another by traditional styles; and 15% had bullied others via technological communication sources. However, these cyber-bullying prevalence rates may be overestimated due to the problematic research practices used (i.e., dichotomous variables, single-items indictors)

The relation between emotional self-concept domains and involvement in bullying : a preliminary investigation

In Australia, it has been estimated that half of all high-school students have encountered some type of bullying at school (Rigby, 1997). Only recently has research started to investigate and target specific psychological mediators which play a role in bullying (Marsh, Parada, Craven, & Finger, 2004; Smith & Myron-Wilson, 1998). The present study examines the relation of multidimensional self-concept and bullying. Participants included Year 7 to 9 students from a co-educational secondary school (N= 106). Using the Adolescent Peer Relations Instrument-Bully/Target (APRI-BT; Parada, 2000) and the Self-Description Questionnaire II-Short (SDQII-S; Marsh, Ellis, Parada, Richards, & Heubeck, 2005), this study specifically associates bullying with those self-concept factors relating to varying dimensions of affective confidence, namely: emotional stability, honesty/trustworthiness and general self-esteem. A confirmatory factor analyse (CFA) was conducted on the data using structural equation modelling techniques. Although preliminary results show significant and negative correlations between involvement in bullying and emotionally oriented based self-concept factors, future research with a larger sample size is warranted

Examining the validity of motivational profiles across indigenous and non-indigenous students

In multicultural societies such as Australia, examining the potential similarities and differences of students’ motivational profiles crossculturally is an important topic for research. For the most part, goal theory research has been conducted using Caucasian samples and the potential differences between cultural groups have remained relatively unexplored until recently (Urdan & Giancarlo, 2000). The purpose of the current research was to explore cross-cultural similarities and differences in the motivational profiles of Indigenous Papua New Guinean (PNG) and Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian students. A total of 1792 secondary students, across the three cultures, completed self-report motivational measures. Invariance testing demonstrated that the Inventory of School Motivation (ISM - McInerney, Yeung & McInerney, 2001) measure was invariant across cultural groups. The current findings highlight the strength of the ISM and the importance of assessing invariance testing over diverse cultural groups

Do parental relations impact on involvement in bullying? A preliminary investigation into the relations between bullying and parental relations self-concept

Christine-Mizell (2003) proposes that one of the factors which attribute to low self-concept in children is the damaging interactions and poor relationships children have with their parents. Only recently has literature suggested that bullying may be linked to a child's perceived self-concept specifically in the domain of parental relations (Eden, 1999). The present study aims to enhance bullying research by: (a) providing an overall critical literature review of the area; (b) investigating the multidimensional nature of the bully/victim process and its core determinants (parental relations self-concept); and (c) providing further understanding of the mediating factors which influence the bully/target cycle. This study explores the relation of one multidimensional domain of self-concept (parental relations) and bullying using the Adolescent Peer Relations Instrument - Bully/Target (Parada, 2000) and the Self-Description Questionnaire II-Short (SDQII-S)(Marsh, Ellis, Parada, Richards, & Heubeck, 2005). Participants include student's from a co-educational secondary school (N = 106) from Years 7 (n = 35), 8 (n = 24), and 9 (n = 47). A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted on the data. Although the CFA resulted in a poorly fitting model due to the small sample size, correlations were noted among factors which revealed significant negative relations between involvement in bullying (in terms of bullying others and being bullied) and the parental self-concept factor. Future research would benefit with larger sample size to clarify the validity of these results.9 page(s

It is risky business : can social capital reduce risk-taking behaviours among disadvantaged youth?

This study addresses the gap in the research for sound multidimensional assessment of social capital and its relationship with risk-taking behaviour among youths living in disadvantaged communities. Social capital and adolescent risk-taking outcomes were studied cross-sectionally in 1371 secondary students living in two disadvantaged communities within Australia. First, a multidimensional measure of social capital was developed and tested using confirmatory factor analysis. Then, the associations between social capital and a range of youth risk-taking behaviours were examined using structural equation modelling across five-year groups (Grades 7–12). With a few exceptions, higher levels of social capital and belongingness within the school and community were generally associated with decreases in smoking, alcohol and drug consumption, and physical violence. Some outcomes were more strongly associated with family and peer social capital, while others associated more with neighbour and community social capital, indicating that attempts to build social capital need to be targeted across the whole community. This study supports the notion that social capital can be measured empirically and is beneficial in alleviating many of the detrimental health outcomes commonly associated with risk-taking behaviours during adolescence