In a world where the only constant is change, schools are faced with the need to adapt creatively to changing societal demands, parental expectations, and children with increasingly diverse needs. Lasting and effective change can only occur with systemic and organisational change, and this essay argues that school-based psychologists are an invaluable, but potentially overlooked, resource in driving and supporting effective, evidence-supported, organisational change in schools. It is suggested that this can occur best when school-based psychologists are able to move away from direct service models that treat individual children to a systemic model that supports whole-school change.

Critical incident frameworks applied within schools are a means to support school staff to respond and guide planning to reduce critical incidents rates. This article explores the significance of the Therapeutic Crisis Intervention in Schools (TCI-S) critical incident framework to decrease the prevalence of behavioural critical incidents and to improve staff and student emotional competence in schools. The application of the TCI-S framework to reduce critical incidents within the United States and the United Kingdom school systems are demonstrated through upskilling school staff in social-emotional and co-regulation skills. It is suggested that TCI-S has the potential to support students with behavioural and emotional challenges and increase staff competency to implement trauma-informed practices that ultimately will reduce critical incidents.

For a school counsellor or classroom teacher, working with newly arrived students from refugee backgrounds can be daunting, particularly with the awareness that these students have likely experienced significant and potentially horrific trauma. There is now a wealth of evidence showing that traumatic experiences can significantly impact our neurological development, resulting in difficulties in areas such as learning, behaviour, relationship building and emotion regulation, meaning newly arrived refugee students will often arrive at school with some significant challenges. While there is an extensive amount of literature on trauma, there is very little that focuses specifically on the refugee population, and even less on young people from refugee backgrounds. Predominantly, the research looks at chronic or developmental trauma such as child abuse and neglect, or acute trauma such as natural disasters. The following article looks at the refugee context specifically, breaking down the difference between acute, chronic and developmental trauma; and describing the neurological effects of trauma and suggesting some practical classroom-based strategies that can be employed to support and facilitate the recovery of students from refugee backgrounds.

There is a multitude of counselling theories that have gained respectability for their theoretical and practical contributions to the profession. Although such theories have been instrumental in developing useful therapies, there remain significant differences in their interventions and techniques. Debates flourish over which school of counselling is better and which contribute to the best positive outcomes. Research has confirmed that there is no significant amount of outcome difference between the varying schools and that there is not one therapy that is superior in contributing to quality outcomes. A critical basic question has resurfaced in recent times; what makes counselling effective? If each school of counselling is done differently and uses different techniques, how then does each work? Part of the explanation comes from the “working alliance.” The working alliance that comprises the bond, goals and tasks that form a trans-theoretical view will be reviewed and explored with a focus on their application to counselling.

The number of students who are identified as experiencing behavioural difficulties in the mainstream school setting is growing. However, current efforts by teachers to address these behavioural difficulties are seriously limited because of lack of training in the procedures for assessing and working with difficult behaviour. This paper will argue that the apparent failure of traditional “behaviour modification” in producing positive changes in difficult behaviour lies in its prescriptive application of general strategies to specific student problems. This approach to behaviour change is ineffective because it is not based on an understanding of the reasons for difficult behaviour. The functional assessment framework for investigating and understanding student difficulties will be presented as a more efficient means of changing the behaviour problems that occur in the classroom. At the foundation of this framework is the assumption that meaningful and long-term changes to difficult behaviour can only result from teaching the student to behave differently rather than focusing on the elimination of problem behaviour.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a brief interest inventory intervention on career decision self-efficacy in an undergraduate sample. A pretest-posttest equivalent group design compared students who completed an interest inventory and participated in two sessions of its interpretation, students who only completed an interest inventory, and students who received no career intervention. Participants completed the Career Decision Self-Efficacy Scale — Short Form before and at the end of the intervention. The results indicated that both experimental groups had significant gains on career decision self-efficacy, whereas no significant gains were observed for the control group. Although both treatment conditions were effective, the feedback group appeared to be more powerful in increasing career decision self-efficacy. By participating in a feedback group and completing the activities in their interest profiles, a client had the opportunity to be actively involved in his/her own career process instead of passively completing an inventory and receiving no feedback. As well, clients had the opportunity to check the interpretations of their profile and share their results with other clients having similar career difficulties.

The purpose of this research was to examine internet addiction among high school and university students in terms of interpersonal relationships, automatic thoughts and problem-solving skills. The sample of the study comprised a total of 480 participants: 195 (40.6%) high school and 285 (59.4%) university students. Females constituted 53.3% (256) of the participants and males 46.7% (224). In addition to a Personal Information Form, the Interpersonal Relationship Styles Scale, Automatic Thoughts Scale, Problem Solving Inventory and Internet Addiction Scale, for which validity, reliability and adaptation studies were performed, were used for data collection. A significant difference was determined between the groups with no or limited symptoms of internet addiction in terms of inhibitory interpersonal relationship styles, automatic thoughts and problem-solving skills. Inhibitory interpersonal relationships, automatic thoughts and problem-solving skills were identified as predictive of internet addiction.

Challenging behaviours in young children impact upon schools and families and can lead to more serious challenges in adolescence and adulthood. In the last decade, there has been an increasing trend towards the development of early intervention and prevention programs that serve to draw on child competencies to ameliorate some of the factors that may increase a child's susceptibility to ongoing challenging behaviours. This article reports on a recently evaluated program titled the Early Impact (EI) Program. Some of the unique features of the program are examined, including the home and school components of the intervention that emphasise the strength-based philosophy that underpins the program. A summary of key findings of a recent evaluation of the EI program are also presented that highlight the program's effectiveness and utility for early childhood practitioners working with at-risk children in regular school communities. Finally, recommendations for specific practices in the implementation of intervention programs as well as areas for future research are identified that would serve to extend the current body of knowledge focussing on effective early intervention and prevention frameworks for young children and their families.

There is a perception among educational communities that guidance officers are often working on their own agendas which are at cross-purposes to the needs of schools. This study was undertaken to investigate the legitimacy of those perceptions using 22 areas of guidance operation. The sample included 80% of secondary principals and 100% of secondary guidance officers in Clusters 1-5, South Coast Educational Region in Queensland. The study found that there were high correlations between guidance officers and principals in their perceptions of present and preferred guidance practice. The area of consultation with administration and staff however indicated that there was little or no correlation between present and preferred operation. This was targeted by both guidance officers and principals for improved operation. Consultation and communication represents a key area for supervision of operation.

Within schools the teacher has membership of a small group which provides belonging, support and validation. Counsellors, who often cover many schools, also have a need to be accepted as a member of a group. This need is too easily overlooked as the role of counsellor is frequently seen as one who provides for the needs of others.

The aim of the MM+ initiative is to build the capacity of secondary schools to ensure optimal outcomes of students with high needs in the area of mental health. This is important for many reasons including the fact that poor psychological wellbeing in students has been found to lead to behavioural difficulties at school that can then serve as obstacles to learning and further development. Therefore, it is important for schools to focus on supporting students with high mental health needs in order to improve student wellbeing, behaviour and academic potential. The following article discusses the research findings in regard to these relationships. These findings are also examined within a discussion of how schools can help to improve emotional and behavioural problems from within the classroom, including tips about how this was achieved by the MindMatters Plus demonstration schools.

School counsellors and psychologists will encounter students affected by addiction. When this occurs many will simply refer the students to specialist services within the community. Such referrals are not always an appropriate action for many reasons. School counsellors and psychologists have the professional characteristics required to create a therapeutic alliance and know the behavioural strategies needed for basic addiction treatment. It is suggested that school counsellors and psychologists add some basic knowledge, awareness, and skill relating to addiction to their professional development and, when possible, address the addiction problems of their students directly. Arguments regarding why school counsellors and psychologists should treat addiction problems are given. Moreover, how school counsellors and psychologists can briefly address addiction problems is outlined. Finally, resources on addiction are provided.

In Iran, a large number of adolescents compete every year to enter university, given the better job opportunities that may exist after graduation. The hope of having more education affects students’ academic engagement. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between academic hope and academic engagement with the mediating role of academic buoyancy, using the Academic Hope Scale, Academic Buoyancy Scale, and Academic Engagement Scale. The participants in the study were 353 Iranian students in the last year of high school who had applied to enter university in 2019. Data were analysed using structural equation modelling procedures. The results showed that there was a direct significant relationship between academic hope (p ≤ .01, β = 0.19) and academic buoyancy (p ≤ .01, β = 0.25) with academic engagement. There was a direct and significant relationship between academic hope and academic buoyancy (p ≤ .01, β = 0.33). And academic buoyancy partially mediated the relationship between academic hope and academic engagement. The discussion concerns the potential benefits of implementing interventions designed to enhance academic hope to increase learners’ academic engagement.

The aim of this research was to examine effects of cigarette smoking on depression and anxiety among children and adolescents (youth) with early onset schizophrenia and/or psychosis. Data were obtained from the national evaluation of the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children and Their Families Program (CMHS Program). Cubic mixed models were used to analyze the longitudinal data with seven waves (over 3 years). Results showed that 29% youth (N = 117, mean age at intake = 13.9) smoked cigarettes in any prior 6-month period. Cigarette users had high levels of initial and sustained depression and anxiety throughout the seven waves. Predicted depression and anxiety scores of cigarette users and non-users showed that cigarette users had higher but more stable states of anxiety and depression. Results suggested that youth with EOS might use cigarettes for mood regulation. Implications of results for psychologists and counsellors in schools are discussed.

This study aimed to determine the predictive power of the theory of planned behaviour in predicting the intention and behaviour of positive thinking in school students. A cross-sectional study was performed on 367 high school male students in Iran. Data were gathered using a researcher-made questionnaire whose validity and reliability had been confirmed before. Descriptive and inferential analysis (univariate and multiple logistic regression models, Pearson correlation) was performed using SPSS software V.20. AMOS version 22 was used to perform the path analysis. According to the results, the construct of attitude was the most important construct in predicting positive thinking intention. Finally, the theory of planned behaviour constructs could predict 36% of intention variance and 20% of behaviour variance of positive thinking. Since the construct of attitude is one of the most powerful constructs in predicting student positive thinking intention in male teens, it is recommended that more attention be paid to this construct in educational programs to improve the mental health of male high school students. The results of this study can help psychologists and counsellors, families, and teachers improve students’ mental health.

This report is part of a larger project investigating school satisfaction of early adolescents in Hong Kong. The research questions in this part of the study focused on the school experience of 21 high-ability Chinese students aged 9–14 in Hong Kong primary and secondary schools. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with each of the participants. From the qualitative data collected, six influences on their school satisfaction emerged ― two that could be classified as ‘personal influences’ (goal-directed thoughts and motivation; self-discipline and self-regulation) and four themes that reflected ‘environmental influences’ (positive teacher-student relationships, classmates emotional and instrumental support, parental involvement in students’ learning, talent development opportunities). The findings from the study can help to inform school personnel on modifiable aspects of school environments that can help high-ability students succeed and at the same time enjoy their school life.

In the current study, the source of self-efficacy beliefs of school counsellors and enhancement strategies were investigated using a qualitative approach. A phenomenological research design was used in the current study. Nineteen school counsellors from Turkey participated in the study (11 of them female). For data collection, a semistructured interview technique was used, and for data analysis, thematic and content analyses were undertaken, resulting in particular themes and categories. Sources of school counsellor self-efficacy and likely enhancement strategies were collected under five themes: counselling skills, management of group behaviour, working with resistant students, consultation, and assessment techniques by using content analysis. Results were discussed in line with the literature and suggestions were given.

Identification processes for at-risk students in primary schools are pivotal for the implementation of appropriate and timely intervention strategies. With increasingly complex problems facing youth today, it is vital to have identification and referral processes that are effective and efficient. This paper describes an innovative multidisciplinary approach for identification and referral that can be implemented in primary schools.

This study investigated how teachers who support children with learning difficulties utilise psychologists’ reports in their teaching practice. Previous research has examined teachers’ preferences for how reports should be written, rather than how they might be used. Semi-structured, qualitative interviews with 12 teachers (seven primary, four high school and one preschool teacher) were undertaken and followed up with member checks and interrater reliability. Findings suggested that while the teachers valued the recommendations section of the report, they were also interested in other sections, particularly information about the student's background. Simultaneously, teachers used information from reports selectively in relation to their own professional knowledge and in collaboration with other stakeholders. Implications for practice and further research are discussed.