Autonomy Support and Children's School Attachment: Motivation as a Mediator [Özerklik Desteǧi ve Çocuklarin Okula Baǧliliǧi: Motivasyonun Aracilik Rolü]

The present study examined the mediating role of motivation in the association between autonomy support and children's school attachment. The study participants consisted of 437 primary school students (232 girls and 205 boys) selected from six schools in a province located in Turkey's southeast region. A hypothesized model was developed and tested by structural equation modeling on cross-sectional data. The data were collected via The School Attachment Scale for Children and Adolescents, The Scale for Motivation in Education, and The Short Form of the Learning Climate Scale. The results indicated that autonomy support had an indirect effect on school attachment through internal motivation. Contrary to these findings, it has been determined that neither identified external motivation nor introjected external motivation affected attachment to the school's directly and indirectly. © 2021 The authors. All right reserved

COVID-19: Are School Counseling Services Ready? Students' Psychological Symptoms, School Counselors' Views, and Solutions

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the effects of COVID-19 on high school students' psychological symptoms and to understand how ready counselors and school counseling services are based on the data we have. Therefore, this research is designed under two different studies: (A) Study 1: Effects of COVID-19 pandemic on students' psychological symptoms and (B) Study 2: Views and expectations of students and school counselors about school counseling services. The first study was a quantitative study and included 549 high school students (398 female, 151 male). A structural equation model (SEM) was created to examine the effects of COVID-19 pandemic on participants' psychological symptoms. The Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) scores showed that 107 (19.50%) individuals had a score of 50 and above pointing out that individuals in this group had severe impact of event/trauma symptomologies. The SEM analysis indicated that IES-R scores had a total effect of 0.79 on anxiety, 0.75 on depression, 0.74 on negative self-concept, 0.68 on somatization, and 0.66 on hostility scores. Furthermore, female students had significantly higher scores on anxiety, depression, negative self-concept, somatization, hostility, and impact of events variables than male students. Study 2 was a qualitative design and consisted of five school counselors and five students from different schools. The results indicated that students' difficulties during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak were educational, cognitive, emotional, physiological, relational, technological, and related to routines. Academic, social, emotional, and behavioral issues came to the fore among the difficulties that can be experienced if students start face-to-face education. On the other hand, the school counselors listed that family relations, personal-social, emotional, and academic themes were the difficulties experienced by the students at the beginning of the COVID-19. In addition, when COVID-19 started, the services offered by school counselors were discussed under (1) services for the student, (2) services for the family, and (3) services for the teacher. Finally, according to the opinions of the school counselors, if students start face-to-face education, they may experience emotional, academic, and relational difficulties. In summary, it is vital that student personality services be prepared and implemented by school counseling services for schools based on the results

Protective and Preventative Factors in Struggling with Addiction: The Role of Life Skills

WOS: 000503273200018Drug addiction plays an important role in the problems experienced by children and adolescents in developmental risk groups. The programs developed to prevent drug addiction seem to be more on knowledge level. The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between drug addiction and life skills in adolescents. In this context, a qualitative research has been conducted in order to demonstrate the attitudes of young people and their families towards substance use/dependence, the motivations of considering and starting narratives. the reasons of starting to drug, the consequences of drug use and the importance of life skills in preventing drug addiction. The data were gathered from 10 separate interviews with a total of 87 people, consisting of parents; (45) and young people (42) with the focus group interviews. The data were analyzed with qualitative data analysis technique using MAXQDA program. As a result of the research, it is found that young people who use drugs have problems with their families, do not have good relations with their families and friends, and they have low school achievement and school loyalty. Among the life skills that young people believe to be effective in preventing drug use are social skills, communication and nurturing relationships in affective domain; , problem solving, resistance to substance and goal setting, health in the field of managing emotions and self-discipline are the most important ones in cognitive domain

Substance Dependence: Reinforcing the Individual for a Clean Life

The aims of this study are to define studies that will be conducted for primary prevention within the framework of the struggle with addiction and to present inferences for evaluating and improving prevention programs. Addiction is generally defined as the progressive use of a substance for providing the addictive substance's desired effect or when a decrease effect occurs despite using the same amount of the substance. When reviewing the literature on addiction, forensic or medical interventions alone are unable to offer effective solutions to this problem. Suggestions for studies on preventing and improving life skills have been able to be provided. The primary objective of prevention studies is to raise individual awareness and provide reinforcement before the use of any substance is begun. These studies have attempted to prevent addiction by improving protective factors and decreasing risk factors. Recently, prevention studies that aim to improve life skills in order to prevent addiction have been observed at the forefront and have revealed effective results

The Effectiveness of Addiction Prevention Training Program of Turkey on Improved Acquisition of Knowledge and Emotional Awareness about Addiction

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect that the Addiction Prevention Training Program of Turkey (APT) has on increasing primary, middle, and high school students' knowledge and emotional awareness about addiction. A pre-test/post-test one group experimental design was used in the study. The study group consisted of a combined total of 5,570 primary, middle, and high school students from 12 provinces of Turkey from each of the 12 regions in NUTS-1 A dependent t-test was conducted to examine the program's ability in aiding students to acquire knowledge and emotional awareness. APT was found to be effective in increasing students' knowledge and emotional awareness about technology addiction and to be more successful for primary school and high school than for middle school students. The program is successful in combating tobacco addiction. High school students in particular became more informed about tobacco addiction as a result of the program. APT furthermore helped high school students increase their knowledge and emotional awareness about alcohol and drug addiction. Finally, although the program was effective in improving students' knowledge about healthy living, it did not have the same effect in increasing their emotional awareness about it. As a result, the program was effective in improving students' knowledge and emotional awareness about addictions