Using the PhotoStory method to understand the cultural context of youth victimisation in the Punjab

Bullying is an international issue that is only just beginning to be researched in India and anecdotal evidence in Punjab, India, has suggested that most schools in the Punjab are in denial about bullying on campus. Our aim was to investigate the nature of bullying in this region using the PhotoStory Method. We sought to discover how young people in India perceived and experienced incidents of bullying. Three Punjabi schools were issued with ipads that students could use to email the researchers their illustrated stories about bullying. Using the Pic Collage App, 33 students aged 12-15 sent PhotoStories about experiences of victimization. Many stories described incidents of physical harassment, name calling and ‘Eve teasing’, which left students feeling sad, embarrassed, depressed and helpless. However, only four PhotoStories described incidents that met the definition of bullying i.e. that involved repetitive, hurtful behaviour perpetrated by a person or persons that could be considered more ‘powerful’ than the victim. Nonetheless, the stories, while not lengthy and overly descriptive, did indicate that physical acts of aggression between peers were common in and outside school. The findings are discussed in relation to definitional issues and the need to implement anti-violence programs in Indian schools.peer-reviewe

Whole-school mental health promotion in Australia

Although there is increasing recognition internationally of the significance of social and emotional health and wellbeing for the healthy development of young people, the levels of support that governments provide for mental health policy and programme initiatives vary widely. In this paper, consideration is given to Australia’s approach to mental health promotion from early years to secondary school, including specific reference to the KidsMatter Primary mental health promotion, prevention and early intervention initiative. Although it is now well established that schools provide important settings for the promotion of mental health initiatives, there are significant challenges faced in effectively implementing and maintaining the delivery of evidence-based practice in school settings, including concerns about quality assurance in processes of implementation, translation, dissemination and evaluation.peer-reviewe

Venturing into schools : locating mental health initiatives in complex environments

Schools provide viable settings for mental health promotion initiatives, such as programs to develop students’ social and emotional capabilities (SEC). Complexity in the school environments into which initiatives are introduced, such as diverse student capabilities, school structures, and teachers’ knowledge and confidence, will play an integral role in the success of those initiatives. This paper investigates the environments of schools about to receive the KidsMatter mental heath promotion, prevention and early intervention initiative in Australia, using information sourced from questionnaires about 2598 students and their teachers in 50 Australian primary schools. The focus of the report is on the status of the schools’ work in one of the key focus areas for the intervention, namely students’ SEC. Analysis showed relatively high levels of students’ SEC across the whole sample, but with sub-group differences. Teachers’ attitudes towards SEC learning were highly positive. Teachers’ self-rated knowledge and approaches in dealing with SEC were moderate, and point to requirements for additional pre-service and professional development. The extent of regular and sustained delivery of SEC programs and mental health initiatives in general showed variability, suggesting the need to attend to school systems and structural supports. Implications of these areas of diversity in school environments on the selection and methods of delivery of mental health promotion programs in schools are discussed.peer-reviewe

Exploring Three Measures of Student Wellbeing

This chapter appears in 'Transforming the Future of Learning with Educational Research' edited by Helen Askell-Williams. Copyright 2015, IGI Global, www.igi-global.com. Posted by permission of the publisher.There has been limited consensus on how young people's wellbeing should be measured (O'Hare & Gutierrez, 2012). One approach, suggested by Lau and Bradshaw (2010), is that people’s subjective judgments capture the essence of wellbeing. Following from Lau and Bradshaw’s approach, in this chapter the authors report on a study that sought young adolescents' subjective judgments using three different wellbeing instruments. A purposive sample of 1930 South Australian middle-school students aged 11-16 completed three different measures of wellbeing. Analysis of these instruments indicated that they all require some modification to make them better suited as measures of the subjective wellbeing of young people in the middle-school years. Using the three scales together, the study indicated that the majority (55%) of students were flourishing, a large proportion (39%) had moderate mental health, and a small proportion (about 6%) were languishing

Whole-school mental health promotion in Australia

Although there is increasing recognition internationally of the significance of social and emotional health and wellbeing for the healthy development of young people, the levels of support that governments provide for mental health policy and programme initiatives vary widely. In this paper, consideration is given to Australia’s approach to mental health promotion from early years to secondary school, including specific reference to the KidsMatter Primary mental health promotion, prevention and early intervention initiative. Although it is now well established that schools provide important settings for the promotion of mental health initiatives, there are significant challenges faced in effectively implementing and maintaining the delivery of evidence-based practice in school settings, including concerns about quality assurance in processes of implementation, translation, dissemination and evaluation

Coping with school bullying: a cross national pilot intervention study

In Australia and Greece the issue of school bullying is a significant concern of educators and students. While victims are not to be blamed for being bullied, research suggests that the strategies utilised by victims to cope with bullying may inadvertently reinforce victimisation. This paper will outline the successful Australian “Coping with School Bullying” (CWSB) program, including the use of a translated Greek version of the CWSB DVD, and describe the outcomes of the replication of the CWSB questionnaire with Greek students to identify effective and ineffective coping. Preliminary research conducted in Greek schools indicates that the CWSB program was successful in significantly reducing bullying amongst Greek students who had reported being seriously bullied pre-program. The intervention will now be rolled out to a larger number of schools in Greece in 2013

Social and emotional wellbeing programs: the nexus between sustainability and quality assurance

When social-emotional wellbeing programs are well-implemented, positive changes in students' mental health and self-regulatory social-emotional capabilities can eventuate. However, a problematic area of program implementation is sustainability once the supports and resources of the 'start-up' phases of new initiatives fade away. It is increasingly recognised that quality assurance procedures are necessary during the delivery of new programs. However, it appears that procedures for quality assurance of the sustainability components of programs have been relatively neglected. In this paper we investigate whether and why the KidsMatter Primary Mental Health Promotion initiative in Australia was sustained in schools one year after completion of the pilot phase. Thematic analysis indicated a range of facilitators and barriers to sustainability, and that many, but not all, schools continued to identify themselves as 'KidsMatter' schools. We propose a framework to guide a continuous cycle of quality assurance processes, with a specific focus on assuring program sustainability. We argue that more practical and conceptual work needs to be undertaken to develop tools and processes for explicit quality assurance of the sustainability components of mental health promotion and social-emotional wellbeing initiatives in educational settings

IB middle years program (MYP): Student social-emotional well-being and school success practices

Published version of the paper reproduced here with permission from the publisher

KidsMatter for students with a disability: evaluation report

The KidsMatter Primary Mental Health Initiative is a whole of school framework that focuses on mental health care, the prevention of mental health problems and responding appropriately to mental health issue as they arise. The Australian initiative was originally designed for primary school children but has since been extended to early childhood as a separate initiative called KidsMatter Early Childhood.Upon completion of the Australia wide KidsMatter Evaluation, the data was examined to utilise information relating to students with a disability from South Australian primary schools. The analysis confirmed the previous findings of the Ministerial Advisory Committee that students with a disability are at significantly greater risk of developing mental health problems than students without a disability. The findings also suggest that KidsMatter Primary has had a positive effect on students with a disability by strengthening their wellbeing and reducing mental health difficulties

Life at school in Australia and Japan: the impact of stress and support on bullying and adaptation to school

In this international, comparative study, path analysis was used to examine eight different aspects of Japanese and Australian students' experiences of school life in relation to their effect on adaptation to school. Adaptation was constructed to include information on enjoyment of school, feelings of belonging to school, and relationships with other students. Two separate path models were tested to compare questionnaire data from over 3000 Australian and 6000 Japanese students across Years 5-10. The questionnaire was developed collaboratively by the authors to examine issues of common concern in both countries. Issues that related to the impact on adaptation to school of stress and support: family teachers, peers and school work, as well as bullying were of particular interest. Lack of support and the influential effect of stress were found to exert direct negative effects on adaptation to school, especially for high school students in Japan and Australia. The path results also confirmed the stressful effects of bullying in both countries. The finding of a strong relationship between bullying others and being victimised is discussed in the paper. Finally, the differences and similarities between Japanese and Australian students' perceptions of school life are extrapolated