A study of transition from primary to post-primary school for pupils with special educational needs

The NCSE is pleased to publish this research report on the experiences of young students with special educational needs (SEN), and their parents, of the move from primary to post primary school. This is an important transition for all students. Post primary schools tend to be bigger than primary schools, and students face more teachers, more formal and subject focused learning and a more regulated environment. The changes encountered are common to all students. However there are also specific implications for students with SEN, including changes in the organisation of SEN resources and supports, and the need for coordination across schools and other services to ensure a continuum of support to address individual special needs. This report is particularly welcome as it provides important insights into how students, and their parents, experience this transition, and lessons from their experiences highlight what works well and what might be improved. The NCSE believes that transition planning is particularly important for pupils with SEN moving from one level of education to the next, whether from early education to primary, primary to post primary or post school to training, work or college. The need for such planning is supported by the stories of parents and students in this research. Drawing on this research and other work on the topic, the NCSE intends to develop evidence based guidance on transition planning in relation to children and young people with special educational needs over the next year. In addition, this research report will be of great interest to teachers, parents, students and policy makers

The experiences of pupils with SEN and their parents at the stage of pre-transition from primary to post-primary school

The experiences of pupils with Special Education Needs (SEN) and their parents at pre and post-transition from primary to post-primary school have received little literature attention. This current paper outlines the outcomes of the post transition experiences of pupils with SEN and their parents and provides a follow up to their pre –transition experiences from a comprehensive research project conducted in the Republic of Ireland. Twenty six pupils with Special Education Needs (SEN) and twenty seven parents of pupils participated in focus groups after their transition to post primary school. Emergent themes for pupils included: settling in; asking questions, provoking questions; and it’s not as bad as you think it’s going to be. Emergent themes for parents included: social support is key to settling in; communication problems; and prevention is better than cure. Critical issues emerging from the data are discussed

Behavioral, cognitive and emotional determinants of getting vaccinated for COVID-19 and the mediating role of institutional trust among young adults in Cyprus

Background: Vaccination uptake is a complex behavior, influenced by numerous factors. Behavioral science theories are commonly used to explain the psychosocial determinants of an individual’s health behavior. This study examined the behavioural, cognitive, and emotional determinants of COVID-19 vaccination intention based on well-established theoretical models: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, and Behaviour (COM-B) and the Health Belief Model (HBM). Additionally, it examined the mediating role of institutional trust in the relationship between determinants of these models and vaccination intentions. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from January to May 2022, where university students in Cyprus completed an online survey. Results: A total of 484 university students completed the online survey, with 23.8% reporting being vaccinated with fewer than three vaccination doses and/or no intention to vaccinate further. Hierarchical logistic regression analysis showed that higher scores in institutional trust, perceived severity, motivation, physical and psychological capability were significantly associated with higher odds of intending to vaccinate. Higher psychological flexibility and not being infected with COVID-19 were also associated with higher odds of vaccination intention, but not in the final model when all determinants were included. Additionally, significant indirect effects of psychological and physical capability, motivation and perceived severity on vaccination intention were found to be mediated by institutional trust. Conclusions: When tackling COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy, behavioural, cognitive, and emotional aspects should be considered. Stakeholders and policymakers are advised to implement targeted vaccination programs in young people while at the same time building trust and improving their capabilities and motivation towards getting vaccinated

Neural circuitry underlying sustained attention in healthy adolescents and in ADHD symptomatology

Moment-to-moment reaction time variability on tasks of attention, often quantified by intra-individual response variability (IRV), provides a good indication of the degree to which an individual is vulnerable to lapses in sustained attention. Increased IRV is a hallmark of several disorders of attention, including Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Here, task-based fMRI was used to provide the first examination of how average brain activation and functional connectivity patterns in adolescents are related to individual differences in sustained attention as measured by IRV. We computed IRV in a large sample of adolescents (n=758) across 'Go' trials of a Stop Signal Task (SST). A data-driven, multi-step analysis approach was used to identify networks associated with low IRV (i.e., good sustained attention) and high IRV (i.e., poorer sustained attention). Low IRV was associated with greater functional segregation (i.e., stronger negative connectivity) amongst an array of brain networks, particularly between cerebellum and motor, cerebellum and prefrontal, and occipital and motor networks. In contrast, high IRV was associated with stronger positive connectivity within the motor network bilaterally and between motor and parietal, prefrontal, and limbic networks. Consistent with these observations, a separate sample of adolescents exhibiting elevated ADHD symptoms had increased fMRI activation and stronger positive connectivity within the same motor network denoting poorer sustained attention, compared to a matched asymptomatic control sample. With respect to the functional connectivity signature of low IRV, there were no statistically significant differences in networks denoting good sustained attention between the ADHD symptom group and asymptomatic control group. We propose that sustained attentional processes are facilitated by an array of neural networks working together, and provide an empirical account of how the functional role of the cerebellum extends to cognition in adolescents. This work highlights the involvement of motor cortex in the integrity of sustained attention, and suggests that atypically strong connectivity within motor networks characterizes poor attentional capacity in both typically developing and ADHD symptomatic adolescents

On Developing the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) as a Tool for Quantifying Tobacco Addiction

The present research aimed to develop the implicit relational assessment procedure (IRAP) as a means of quantifying tobacco addiction in terms of implicit (i.e. automatic) evaluative processes. Chapter 1 begins by highlighting the fundamental importance of such processes to the losses of personal autonomy which characterise tobacco addiction. Accordingly, thereafter, Chapters 1-3 involve critically reviewing all major measures of addiction-related implicit processes in terms of their respective abilities to distinguish between implicit evaluating of one topic as distinct from another. The review culminates by recommending the IRAP, and its behaviour analytic rationale, as a tool for both functional and cognitive theorizing about tobacco addiction. Chapter 4 reports a study showing that the IRAP compares favourably with the most popular implicit measurement tool, the implicit association test (IAT), in terms of its ability to validate against multiple defining features of tobacco addiction. Indeed, this was despite the fact that both implicit measures were focused on evaluative topics specifically designed to favour the IAT rather than the IRAP; and also despite the fact that as a result the relevant IAT convincingly outperformed all of its predecessors in the literature. In response, Chapter 5 describes research that explored the potential of the IRAP to target complex, mood-conditional aspects of smokers’ implicit reasons for smoking that were unavailable to the IAT, or any other implicit measure. Crucially, by revealing motivational distinctions that were simply not available using other existing measures of implicit cognition, the IRAP’s experimental precision allowed us to identify aspects of implicit evaluating with unprecedented levels of criterion validity in relation to tobacco addiction. For example, these findings suggested a preliminary functional model wherein tobacco addiction is motivated by complex, coordinated and mood-dependent networks of implicit evaluative processes which collectively insist that one should regulate one’s ongoing emotional experiences – particularly negative craving-related affect – by smoking. Extending this model, the three experimental studies reported in Chapters 6 and 7 confirmed that smokers’ most popular, and also least successful, method of managing their (implicit) tobacco cravings is ultimately selfdefeating insofar as it involves experientially avoidant tactics like thought suppression. Accordingly, Chapter 8 concludes by recommending the IRAP, with certain important qualifications, as a useful means of quantifying tobacco addiction in such a way as to begin clarifying the motivational problem(s) that smoking-cessation treatments must ultimately tackle

On Developing the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) as a Tool for Quantifying Tobacco Addiction

The present research aimed to develop the implicit relational assessment procedure (IRAP) as a means of quantifying tobacco addiction in terms of implicit (i.e. automatic) evaluative processes. Chapter 1 begins by highlighting the fundamental importance of such processes to the losses of personal autonomy which characterise tobacco addiction. Accordingly, thereafter, Chapters 1-3 involve critically reviewing all major measures of addiction-related implicit processes in terms of their respective abilities to distinguish between implicit evaluating of one topic as distinct from another. The review culminates by recommending the IRAP, and its behaviour analytic rationale, as a tool for both functional and cognitive theorizing about tobacco addiction. Chapter 4 reports a study showing that the IRAP compares favourably with the most popular implicit measurement tool, the implicit association test (IAT), in terms of its ability to validate against multiple defining features of tobacco addiction. Indeed, this was despite the fact that both implicit measures were focused on evaluative topics specifically designed to favour the IAT rather than the IRAP; and also despite the fact that as a result the relevant IAT convincingly outperformed all of its predecessors in the literature. In response, Chapter 5 describes research that explored the potential of the IRAP to target complex, mood-conditional aspects of smokers’ implicit reasons for smoking that were unavailable to the IAT, or any other implicit measure. Crucially, by revealing motivational distinctions that were simply not available using other existing measures of implicit cognition, the IRAP’s experimental precision allowed us to identify aspects of implicit evaluating with unprecedented levels of criterion validity in relation to tobacco addiction. For example, these findings suggested a preliminary functional model wherein tobacco addiction is motivated by complex, coordinated and mood-dependent networks of implicit evaluative processes which collectively insist that one should regulate one’s ongoing emotional experiences – particularly negative craving-related affect – by smoking. Extending this model, the three experimental studies reported in Chapters 6 and 7 confirmed that smokers’ most popular, and also least successful, method of managing their (implicit) tobacco cravings is ultimately selfdefeating insofar as it involves experientially avoidant tactics like thought suppression. Accordingly, Chapter 8 concludes by recommending the IRAP, with certain important qualifications, as a useful means of quantifying tobacco addiction in such a way as to begin clarifying the motivational problem(s) that smoking-cessation treatments must ultimately tackle

On Developing the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) as a Tool for Quantifying Tobacco Addiction

The present research aimed to develop the implicit relational assessment procedure (IRAP) as a means of quantifying tobacco addiction in terms of implicit (i.e. automatic) evaluative processes. Chapter 1 begins by highlighting the fundamental importance of such processes to the losses of personal autonomy which characterise tobacco addiction. Accordingly, thereafter, Chapters 1-3 involve critically reviewing all major measures of addiction-related implicit processes in terms of their respective abilities to distinguish between implicit evaluating of one topic as distinct from another. The review culminates by recommending the IRAP, and its behaviour analytic rationale, as a tool for both functional and cognitive theorizing about tobacco addiction. Chapter 4 reports a study showing that the IRAP compares favourably with the most popular implicit measurement tool, the implicit association test (IAT), in terms of its ability to validate against multiple defining features of tobacco addiction. Indeed, this was despite the fact that both implicit measures were focused on evaluative topics specifically designed to favour the IAT rather than the IRAP; and also despite the fact that as a result the relevant IAT convincingly outperformed all of its predecessors in the literature. In response, Chapter 5 describes research that explored the potential of the IRAP to target complex, mood-conditional aspects of smokers’ implicit reasons for smoking that were unavailable to the IAT, or any other implicit measure. Crucially, by revealing motivational distinctions that were simply not available using other existing measures of implicit cognition, the IRAP’s experimental precision allowed us to identify aspects of implicit evaluating with unprecedented levels of criterion validity in relation to tobacco addiction. For example, these findings suggested a preliminary functional model wherein tobacco addiction is motivated by complex, coordinated and mood-dependent networks of implicit evaluative processes which collectively insist that one should regulate one’s ongoing emotional experiences – particularly negative craving-related affect – by smoking. Extending this model, the three experimental studies reported in Chapters 6 and 7 confirmed that smokers’ most popular, and also least successful, method of managing their (implicit) tobacco cravings is ultimately selfdefeating insofar as it involves experientially avoidant tactics like thought suppression. Accordingly, Chapter 8 concludes by recommending the IRAP, with certain important qualifications, as a useful means of quantifying tobacco addiction in such a way as to begin clarifying the motivational problem(s) that smoking-cessation treatments must ultimately tackle

On Developing the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) as a Tool for Quantifying Tobacco Addiction

The present research aimed to develop the implicit relational assessment procedure (IRAP) as a means of quantifying tobacco addiction in terms of implicit (i.e. automatic) evaluative processes. Chapter 1 begins by highlighting the fundamental importance of such processes to the losses of personal autonomy which characterise tobacco addiction. Accordingly, thereafter, Chapters 1-3 involve critically reviewing all major measures of addiction-related implicit processes in terms of their respective abilities to distinguish between implicit evaluating of one topic as distinct from another. The review culminates by recommending the IRAP, and its behaviour analytic rationale, as a tool for both functional and cognitive theorizing about tobacco addiction. Chapter 4 reports a study showing that the IRAP compares favourably with the most popular implicit measurement tool, the implicit association test (IAT), in terms of its ability to validate against multiple defining features of tobacco addiction. Indeed, this was despite the fact that both implicit measures were focused on evaluative topics specifically designed to favour the IAT rather than the IRAP; and also despite the fact that as a result the relevant IAT convincingly outperformed all of its predecessors in the literature. In response, Chapter 5 describes research that explored the potential of the IRAP to target complex, mood-conditional aspects of smokers’ implicit reasons for smoking that were unavailable to the IAT, or any other implicit measure. Crucially, by revealing motivational distinctions that were simply not available using other existing measures of implicit cognition, the IRAP’s experimental precision allowed us to identify aspects of implicit evaluating with unprecedented levels of criterion validity in relation to tobacco addiction. For example, these findings suggested a preliminary functional model wherein tobacco addiction is motivated by complex, coordinated and mood-dependent networks of implicit evaluative processes which collectively insist that one should regulate one’s ongoing emotional experiences – particularly negative craving-related affect – by smoking. Extending this model, the three experimental studies reported in Chapters 6 and 7 confirmed that smokers’ most popular, and also least successful, method of managing their (implicit) tobacco cravings is ultimately selfdefeating insofar as it involves experientially avoidant tactics like thought suppression. Accordingly, Chapter 8 concludes by recommending the IRAP, with certain important qualifications, as a useful means of quantifying tobacco addiction in such a way as to begin clarifying the motivational problem(s) that smoking-cessation treatments must ultimately tackle

On Developing the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) as a Tool for Quantifying Tobacco Addiction

The present research aimed to develop the implicit relational assessment procedure (IRAP) as a means of quantifying tobacco addiction in terms of implicit (i.e. automatic) evaluative processes. Chapter 1 begins by highlighting the fundamental importance of such processes to the losses of personal autonomy which characterise tobacco addiction. Accordingly, thereafter, Chapters 1-3 involve critically reviewing all major measures of addiction-related implicit processes in terms of their respective abilities to distinguish between implicit evaluating of one topic as distinct from another. The review culminates by recommending the IRAP, and its behaviour analytic rationale, as a tool for both functional and cognitive theorizing about tobacco addiction. Chapter 4 reports a study showing that the IRAP compares favourably with the most popular implicit measurement tool, the implicit association test (IAT), in terms of its ability to validate against multiple defining features of tobacco addiction. Indeed, this was despite the fact that both implicit measures were focused on evaluative topics specifically designed to favour the IAT rather than the IRAP; and also despite the fact that as a result the relevant IAT convincingly outperformed all of its predecessors in the literature. In response, Chapter 5 describes research that explored the potential of the IRAP to target complex, mood-conditional aspects of smokers’ implicit reasons for smoking that were unavailable to the IAT, or any other implicit measure. Crucially, by revealing motivational distinctions that were simply not available using other existing measures of implicit cognition, the IRAP’s experimental precision allowed us to identify aspects of implicit evaluating with unprecedented levels of criterion validity in relation to tobacco addiction. For example, these findings suggested a preliminary functional model wherein tobacco addiction is motivated by complex, coordinated and mood-dependent networks of implicit evaluative processes which collectively insist that one should regulate one’s ongoing emotional experiences – particularly negative craving-related affect – by smoking. Extending this model, the three experimental studies reported in Chapters 6 and 7 confirmed that smokers’ most popular, and also least successful, method of managing their (implicit) tobacco cravings is ultimately selfdefeating insofar as it involves experientially avoidant tactics like thought suppression. Accordingly, Chapter 8 concludes by recommending the IRAP, with certain important qualifications, as a useful means of quantifying tobacco addiction in such a way as to begin clarifying the motivational problem(s) that smoking-cessation treatments must ultimately tackle