This paper describes the influential role that positive statements made by teachers has on upper primary school students' mental health as measured by their self-perceptions and their satisfaction with their classroom environment. The notion forwarded is that positive statements, when delivered by teachers under specific conditions, have a positive impact on self-esteem, self-talk, self-concepts and classroom environment. The use of positive statements in the primary classroom has been questioned over the past 20 years and has been criticised by anti-behaviourists and motivationists. It is argued that the use of positive statements in the classroom context has not been appropriately considered within the realm of enhancing students' self-perceptions, developing positive teacher–student relationships and creating positive learning environments. This paper integrates the findings from a program of research undertaken by the author over the past decade.

Victimisation among students has been identified as a serious problem in Australian schools. This study investigated approaches taken by South Australian middle school students for dealing with victimisation. Over 170 students (aged 11–16) described how they coped with bullying and situations where they needed to take action against bullying. A content analysis of their responses found that students used coping strategies, including: (a) seeking social support, (b) standing up for peers/friends, (c) externalising, (d) nonchalance, (e) sticking up for oneself, (f) problem-solving, (g) submission, (h) reducing tense emotions/assertiveness, and (i) escape. One of the significant findings was that students did not identify school counsellors as a source of coping support, which has implications for their role in addressing incidents of victimisation.

This exploratory study involved a structured group-games intervention to develop first-grade students’ social competence. The effects were evaluated by assessing possible outcomes for the children's social status. A sample of 119 first-grade, mixed-ability students from a Hong Kong primary school participated in the sessions (63 boys, 56 girls: mean age 74 months). Sessions were led by trained parent-volunteers and involved a 60-minute session each week for 8 weeks in the children's own classrooms. Peer nominations were used before and after intervention to assess participants’ social status under five possible categories ― popular, rejected, controversial, neglected and average. Improvement in children's social awareness and social status was noted following the intervention. Children's competence in playing group games was found to be positively correlated with their social acceptance. The findings support the value of early social intervention in classrooms as a practical way for preparing first-grade students for primary school life.

Clinical supervision of counsellors is linked to accountable practice and the quality of service to clients. Despite this, there is a gap between the rhetoric of the literature and the practice of clinical supervision. This study, set in the context of the Queensland Department of Education, examined the perceptions of guidance officers and senior guidance officers about the clinical supervision provided for guidance officers by senior guidance officers in relation to their counselling practices. The findings echo concerns expressed in the literature that supervisors have received little training in supervision, and the provision of supervision outside of training settings is less than adequate.

Collaboration between normally separate agencies involved in cases of child mental health, and those supporting their participation and inclusion in school settings, is being increasingly promoted as the answer to intervening in a more ecologically valid and responsive manner. Yet a clear-cut evidence base supporting interagency collaboration in practice is hindered by wide variation in how collaboration is defined, how collaborative initiatives are established and run, and how the success of widely varying programs is interpreted or evaluated. Despite this variation, some strong indicators of success continue to appear. An overview of the literature on interagency collaboration in the context of child mental health, special education, and wellbeing is presented, including risks, benefits, and indicators of success.

Knowledge of the needs of graduate counselling students can assist counsellor education faculty in understanding the unique concerns of this student population and thus assist in the development of adjunct services to address these important issues. This study compared the needs of graduate counselling students from the United States (U.S.) and Nigeria and found that they shared many of the same concerns, with time management as the highest-ranked concern. The implications of these results may help guide all counsellor education faculty in planning to assist students.

The present study aimed to evaluate the role of social support and self-efficacy on the level of stress associated with the transition from high school to university. One hundred and eight-five university students who had completed high school in the previous year completed a three-part questionnaire designed to gather information on their levels of self-efficacy, social support, and stress associated with their transition. The results showed that self-efficacy was a significant predictor of stress associated with the transition to university in that higher levels of self-efficacy were associated with lower levels of stress while social support was a non-significant predictor of stress.

The concept of resilience and mindfulness is becoming increasingly popular in schools worldwide in response to critical issues such as escalating teacher stress and burnout. This article explores the concept of mindfulness as a supportive practice to build resilience in times of stress in relation to reducing or preventing teacher burnout. It aims to provide practical strategies for psychologists and counsellors in schools to empower teachers with coping strategies when encountering stress. What current research literature reveals about the effectiveness of resilience and mindfulness for supporting the wellbeing of preservice and inservice teachers is discussed. Overall, the research shows that practising mindfulness to build resilience is beneficial because it helps teachers focus on the present and improves attention, self-awareness and emotional regulation, which can reduce stress and enhance wellbeing. However, further empirical studies are needed to provide deeper insights of these benefits for teachers. Recommendations for psychologists and counsellors in supporting teachers on practising mindfulness and resilience are provided.

While poor parental bonding has been linked with psychological distress, few studies have assessed bonding with mothers and fathers separately among adolescents and whether there are gender differences in the relationships between bonding and psychological distress. Additionally, low self-esteem has been shown to predict psychological distress, but low self-esteem may develop as a result of poor bonding with parental figures. We explored the relationships between (a) perceived maternal and paternal bonding factors and (b) psychological distress, and examined whether self-esteem mediated these relationships in a non-clinical sample of 337 adolescents (aged 13–17 years, M = 14.17, 50.6% female) in Canberra, Australia. Relative to males, females reported lower levels of self-esteem and higher levels of psychological distress. For females, low self-esteem and perceived maternal or paternal rejection predicted higher levels of psychological distress, whereas low self-esteem predicted psychological distress for males. Implications for future research and further considerations are discussed.

This paper addresses the issues associated with providing quality supervision for school counsellors. The variety of tasks that are required of school counsellors makes it essential that appropriate supervisory support is provided by the employer. Clinical supervision should be carried out by a counsellor who has training in supervision methods and techniques, as well as clinical experience in the tasks being supervised. Administrative supervision can be conducted by a member of the school administrative team. School counsellor competence can be developed in the workplace with the support of a colleague or supervisor until expertise develops.

It is accepted that supervision is a crucial part of the professional support for counsellors. Bernard and Goodyear (1992) suggest that supervision serves three basic and important purposes. First, supervision ensures that those entering the profession have appropriate fundamental skills, second, it enhances the functioning of counsellors, and finally, it ensures the quality of service to clients. The supervisor needs to be competent not only in the process of supervision and the specific issues within the educational setting, but also aware of the particular preference of style school counsellors have for supervision, which research has found tends to be quite directive (Usher & Borders, 1993).

Bullying and cyberbullying are global phenomena negatively impacting on children’s and young people’s (CYP’s) mental health and wellbeing and affecting their school social experiences and learning outcomes. Many interventions and prevention approaches have been employed over the decades, most impacting differentially, with some success in certain contexts and situations but not universally, suggesting the need for more contextualised, nuanced approaches at the whole school, community, individual and peer-group levels. The recognition of the importance of student and teacher voice in recent years has heralded interest in co-design practices to deliver more context-relevant interventions and prevention strategies. This article considers how participatory design and co-design practices can form part of the prevention and intervention repertoire for schools, teachers, counsellors and psychologists in their quest to understand and reduce cyberbullying and/or bullying (C/B) behaviours. Two case-study exemplars are provided that reflect the importance of context and student-centred relevancy to inform practice.

Literature with a focus on telephone and online counselling is reviewed as this form of counselling is becoming increasingly popular in Australia. The relevance and drawbacks of counselling in these two digital environments are detailed. Of the drawbacks, vicarious traumatisation (VT) is given a particular focus as its effects on counsellor functioning are seen to be profound. Possible causes of VT are outlined in light of the controversy surrounding the definition of the condition. Although positive supervisory effects on vicarious traumatisation was only partially supported from general studies on counselling, highlighting the need for focused research on the value of supervision for Australian telephone and online counsellors at risk for vicarious traumatisation, overall supervision was seen to be a legitimate part of VT management for counsellors working in telephone and online environments.

Consumers are increasingly turning to both the internet and apps for mental health assistance. Mobile technologies such as smart phones and tablets offer swift and anonymous access for students to internet sites and app environments. Availability, however, does not guarantee quality or credibility. This web-based pilot study was undertaken to evaluate internet sites and apps on their ability to provide quality and credible information about counselling and counsellors. Of the 69 internet sites identified, only five met the inclusion criteria, and of the 30 apps identified, only eight met the inclusion criteria for quality and credibility. Inter-observer agreement was found to be 95.6% for the inclusion processes and 93% for quality and credibility. The findings strongly suggested that while there was a vast amount of information on the web, both internet sites and apps rarely met criteria for quality and credibility. The role of school counsellors in helping students use web-based counselling tools was discussed.

The aim of the study was to predict loneliness with regard to parental acceptance-rejection and sibling relationship quality after controlling for gender, age, grade, school type, field of study, birth order, and number of siblings. The UCLA Loneliness Scale, Maternal and Paternal Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire, and Sibling Relationship Questionnaire were administered to 1,451 high school students, and multiple hierarchical regression analysis was conducted. Results showed that 1.7% of variance was explained by model 1, including demographic variables, but model 1 was not significant. After adding mother and father acceptance to model 2, the explained variance increased to 18.1%. In model 3, sibling variables were added and the explained variance was 19.6%, which were both significant results. Mother acceptance was the best predictor of loneliness, followed by father acceptance. Parental variables explained loneliness better than sibling and demographic variables. Understanding the family predictors of loneliness may be seen as the first step for a subsequent intervention.

Prior research has shown that teacher-child relationship quality predicts school emotional wellbeing and academic engagement, but it is unclear whether the relationship quality reflects teachers’ perceptions of children's social-emotional behaviours differently for girls and for boys. The purpose of this study was to examine whether teachers’ reports of relationship quality were differentially associated with children's behaviours depending on child gender. Teachers provided behavioural reports and ratings of closeness and conflict for children from kindergarten (n = 598), pre-primary (n = 496), and year 1 (n = 451). Of 19 significant associations, only 5 were moderated by gender, including hyperactivity and emotional problems. The findings suggest that, primarily, gender does not moderate how teachers’ perceptions of behaviours correlate with their ratings of relationship quality, but that gender role expectations may affect teacher-child relationship quality in some behavioural domains. Suggestions for counsellors working with teachers are presented that target teacher self-reflection on gender expectations, behavioural expectations and their intersection, to improve teacher-child relationship quality.

This article presents an investigation into the properties of a new narrative technique for career assessment and counselling, ‘My Career Chapter: A Dialogical Autobiography’. This technique is used to facilitate clients' construction of a meaningful career-related autobiography. Previous research indicates the usefulness of My Career Chapter for adult clients and its alignment with recommendations for the development and application of qualitative assessment and counselling techniques. This study specifically commences research into the technique's applicability for adolescents. A focus group, comprised of guidance counselling professionals whose work primarily pertained to the needs of adolescents, found that there is potential to develop a version of My Career Chapter that is suitable for adolescents.

This article focuses upon the application of Carl Rogers' person-centred approach (PCA) by educational and vocational counsellors. The discussion of PCA in educational and vocational counselling raises several key issues that have received attention in recent counselling psychology literature. PCA has been criticised for its highly individualistic approach that overlooks relational issues, its limited clinical application, and lack of technical expertise to sufficiently produce change in persons with significant mental and/or mood disorders. Three vignettes are presented to illustrate that contemporary PCA is a less individualistic and more socially contextualised practice than originally formulated by Rogers. They highlight some aspects of the work of counsellors who utilise the primary nondirective components of PCA (congruence, unconditional positive regard, empathy) with directive interventions when requested by clients, who are responsive to their clients' diverse socio-cultural backgrounds, and who are prepared to work within a medical framework.

The purpose of the research was to examine the effectiveness of Conflict Resolution and Peer Mediation (CRPM) training on high school students' interpersonal conflicts. The CRPM training program was developed by the researchers as a 31-hour program that addressed four basic conflict resolution skills; understanding the nature of interpersonal conflicts, communication skills, anger management skills, and negotiation and peer mediation skills. The study was conducted in a high school located in Izmir, Turkey which served students from low SES families. During the two-year study, a total of 830 students received training, and following the training, 12 peer mediator students were elected from each classroom by their friends. These peer mediators handled their friends' conflicts during three semesters. Data were collected through the peer mediation forms filled by the mediator students following the mediation sessions. A total of 253 mediation sessions were held; 240 (94.9%) resulted in resolution and 13 (5.1%) in no-resolution. Results of the study indicated that CRPM training could prove to be effective in resolving high school students' conflicts.

This study examined counselling self-efficacy (CSE) between international counselling students and domestic counselling students. Data were collected from 179 participants. Analysis of the data suggested similar levels of CSE scores between domestic and international counselling students, and between school counselling students and other master’s-level counselling students. However, a significant difference was detected between master’s- and doctoral-level counselling students in terms of their CSE scores. Implications for counsellor educators, counselling supervisors and the counselling profession are provided.

Background: This study builds on previous studies reporting that depressive symptoms among adolescents are reduced and personal satisfactions with one's achievements and competence with peers are enhanced when students are taught strategies for engaging in more optimistic thinking (explanatory style) (Gillham, Reivich, & Freres et al., 2006) and social problem-solving (Ingoldsby, Kohl, McMahon, & Lengua, 2006). Additionally, engaging in regular exercise has also been found to be useful in reducing depressive symptoms in this age group (Bodin & Martinsen, 2004). Aim: The study investigated the effects of three interventions — explanatory style (cognitive training), conflict resolution, and exercise — known to help adolescents develop a strong sense of wellbeing. It involved 31students aged 11 to 13 years and their parents, and six class teachers from a large, metropolitan, private boys' college in Brisbane, Australia. Methods: Twenty-five boys participated in the three interventions, while six boys acted as a comparison group. A counterbalanced, multiple baseline design was implemented so that students participated in the three interventions in a different order. Results: The results showed that students in the intervention group experienced a reduction of internalising behaviours such as withdrawal and depressive symptoms following all three interventions. Collectively, the interventions were successful in reducing depressive symptoms; individually, they also significantly reduced depressive symptoms. Conclusions: The results showed that explanatory style, conflict resolution, and exercise interventions are effective in reducing depressive symptoms in adolescents.